
V 



Class 
Book 



*"p 


7 


Af\ j 




. 




tfhtfl 







COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT: 



COMPARATIVE AND 
RATIONAL 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 



BY 

CHARLES ROBINSON 

AUTHOR OF "THE PHILOSOPHY OF HEALTH" 



1911 
RATIONAL HEALTH METHODS SOCIETY 

PUBLISHERS 

ATHENAEUM BUILDING— 7th FLOOR 

59 VAN BUREN STREET 

CHICAGO 






ft* 



COPYRIGHTED 1911 

BY 
CHARLES ROBINSON 



& 



\L 



TV 



PBKSS OF 

Hillison & Etten Co. 
chicago, ill. 



©CU202350 



THE RESURRECTION 

OF THE 

ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

(Written in 1850) 
By William Adams 

No Christian church in the land can criticise Mr. 
Adams' writings, and his interpretation of Christian 
Science compared with Mrs. Eddy's will be a great 
revelation. It will demonstrate that the title Christian 
Science does not belong to any one cult. It will also 
show the difference between Rational and Visionary 
Christian Science. 



PREFACE 

This book is the outgrowth of Yankee inquisitive- 
ness. For the past twenty years the author has been 
investigating different cults in America and Europe in 
order to satisfy himself concerning the predominant 
force which captivates people's reason. He has during 
this period spent much time in the study and practice of 
psychology and suggestive therapeutics, and has to his 
own satisfaction solved the problem of cure through 
mind. It is probably safe to say that 90% of the fol- 
lowers of all of these cults are sincere, while 90% of 
leaders and promulgators are frauds. When any per- 
son comes forth and proclaims to the world that God 
has revealed to them the only message that has ever 
been given to his dear people since Jesus was on earth, 
and that God has been years fitting them for this Divine 
work, until they are prepared to transform a world of 
sin, sickness and death, into a land of health, happiness 
and everlasting life, it should at least set people to in* 

4 



Preface 5 

vestigating, in place of surrendering their reason to de- 
signing pretenders. 

If God should select you to deliver a message to his 
people, what would you do with the message ? Would 
you give it to the people as instructed, or keep it your- 
self and copyright it, and sell it to the good people who 
thirst after Truth, charging them exorbitant prices? 
When you find any cult claiming to have a special reve- 
lation, which is the only truth that God has given his 
people, it is pretty safe to class them with impostors, 
but if you discover that they are using religion as work- 
ing capital for accumulating wealth, then you can very 
easily render a decision. People who have never in- 
vestigated the laws and power of suggestion are often 
misled when they learn of cures being effected by the 
different cults. The author will aim to prove, that 
cures are no proof whatever concerning the genuine- 
ness of the philosophy advocated by the promoters of 
these cults. He will also aim to show how thousands 
of people who are suffering from mental and physical 
ailments, can be greatly relieved without surrendering 
their good common-sense to any false doctoring. 

Faith cure is all right in its place and in proper hands 
it can do a great good, but any cult that denies the 
power and necessity of pure water, pure air, healthy 



6 Preface 

and nutritious food and proper exercise should be 
shunned. 

Our motto is : Put all good things to a good use, and 
be Rational. 



AUTHORS INTRODUCTION 
NEW LIGHT FROM AN OLD FLAME 

It is a very old saying that "There is nothing new 
under the sun," and this proverbial declaration will cer- 
tainly hold good in the case which we aim to demon- 
strate. 

When the subject of Christian Science is alluded 
to, people at once associate the topic with Mary Baker 
Eddy, thinking she was the originator of this Title, 
and our readers will doubtless be greatly surprised to 
learn that an exhaustive work on Christian Science 
was written in the year 1850, by William Adams, who 
was a ripe scholar, a profound thinker and a scientific 
reasoner. 

This was twenty-five years previous to the publica- 
tion of Mrs. Eddy's book. 

The circulation of Christian Science by Adams was 
doubtless very limited for several reasons. First, it 
was not a commercial enterprise, it was the result of 
an earnest, conscientious thinker and reasoner, who 

7 



8 Introduction 

had but one object in view, which was to elucidate the 
minds of the people. Second, the work was too large 
and expensive to meet with ready sale. Third, there 
were no startling discoveries, prognosticating that the 
laws of nature were about to be suspended, and that 
by reading the book faithfully one would be immune 
from sin, sickness and death. 

The book is thoroughly Christian and absolutely 
scientific, and treats upon many topics in a rational and 
convincing manner that should interest every indi- 
vidual regardless of religion, or any ism. 

In this work the writer and compiler reproduces 
about one-fourth of the work on Christian Science 
which was written by Mr. Adams in 1850. The 
reader will appreciate the fact that while Mr. Adams 
dwelt largely upon the spiritual side of life, he by no 
means neglected the physical man. His article on the 
subject of recuperation is to the point, and in a few 
words explains clearly how nature restores the body 
to a normal condition without drugs. 

Regarding the Human Body we will make many 
comparisons showing the difference of opinion as ad- 
vocated by Mr. Adams anl Mrs. Eddy, leaving the 
reader to judge for himself which is right, for cer- 



Introduction 9 

tainly both cannot be, as we could not conceive of 
two opinions being at greater variance. 

Clearing Away the Clouds of Mystery. — Credulous 
people who have no knowledge of psychology are very 
easily converted to any kind of faith cure, and es- 
pecially so when they have seen demonstrations with 
their own eyes, and heard testimonials with their own 
ears. They do not stop to reason or penetrate into the 
scientific cause of the transformation which they be- 
hold. The mind becomes so imbued with the absolute 
reality, that it is in a condition to accept any doctoring 
as the true cause of results produced. 

For many years the writer has taken a deep interest 
in the different cults, each of which have illustrated 
that their philosophy was the only true and reliable 
course capable of guiding poor suffering humanity 
through the arduous struggles of life. The study of 
psychology clears away the clouds of mystery, and il- 
lumines the mind to an extent that absurdities will not 
take possession of the mind, and crowd out reason and 
good judgment. 

Faith Cure is as old as civilization itself and pos- 
sibly much older, and suggestion plays the important 
part regardless of the name which may be given to 
any of the cults. 



io Introduction 

In order to make lucid my ideas concerning the sub- 
ject of Mental Healing, I will be obliged to make my 
demonstrations largely from personal observations and 
absolute experiences, which to myself are worth vol- 
umes of theory and hearsay, and with this experience 
I can easily comprehend how thousands of people are 
made firm adherents to any belief ever advocated. 
While living in the New England States from 1870 
to 1880 I saw much of the workings of spiritualism, 
and there is no doubt but what many remarkable cures 
that were reported were genuine. I was personally 
acquainted with several spiritual doctors, and scores of 
their patients who had unbounded faith in the treat- 
ment, and were delighted with results obtained. 

Some of these cures were truly wonderful, and the 
faithful believers were very positive that their recovery 
was due to the efforts of a departed spirit, usually an 
Indian guide who gave advice through the spiritual 
doctor, who, of course, was a medium. Patients be- 
lieved it was so, because the doctor told them it was 
so, and at the present day this is sufficient to satisfy a 
large percent of humanity. No amount of reasoning 
would convince an ardent adherent to spiritualism that 
there was a bare possibility of the cure being produced 



Introduction 1 1 

by some other means aside from the aid of the departed 
Indian guide. 

A person who has studied the laws of suggestion and 
made scores of practical demonstrations, can easily 
comprehend how thousands of people who are sus- 
ceptible to any positive affirmation, can easily be carried 
away by the persuasive appeals of a leader of strong 
personality. It is an old saying that has been repeated 
for ages, that "Faith is blind," and my investigations, 
which cover a period of nearly forty years, convince 
me that much truth is contained in this proverb. 

When people obtain results which are absolutely 
satisfactory, and in many cases even marvelous, they 
would very naturally be perfectly satisfied with any 
plausible explanation concerning the true and absolute 
cause of what brought about the cure and produced 
such a complete transformation in such a short period. 

Not many years ago hundreds of what we would call 
practical, sensible people, were wearing iron rings on 
their fingers for the cure of rheumatism. The per- 
spiration caused a rust which discolored the skin and 
led the patient to believe that this discoloration was 
due to the peculiar quality of metal which drew the 
uric acid from the system, thereby relieving the rheu- 
matic pains. This was not a bad way of applying 



12 Introduction 

suggestion and good results were being obtained until 
some meddlesome scientific chemist made a careful 
analysis of the substance which accumulated on the 
inside of the ring, and on the finger, and reported that 
no trace of uric acid could be found, and that the whole 
thing was a sham. 

While the method of cure was at least misleading, 
was it absolutely a sham? Patrons were getting a 
course of suggestive therapeutics and excellent results 
at a small cost. But after the exposure was made, the 
confidence of the people was destroyed, which ended 
the popularity of the metal ring. This illustrates that 
truth does not play the important part in healing. The 
suggestion must be powerful enough to stimulate and 
establish absolute faith, then results will follow, pro- 
viding the ailment is functional and not organic, and 
the temperament susceptible. 

Every physician, and in fact every intelligent per- 
son, knows that optimism is a powerful factor in sick- 
ness or in health; at the same time every sane person 
must acknowledge that the human organization is 
susceptible to many contagious diseases that would 
result in wide-spread death and desolation if stringent 
means of prevention were ignored. It is true that 
many nervous diseases will readily yield to any form of 



Introduction 13 

faith cure, which in reality is suggestive therapeutics, 
while on the other hand it is true that many organic 
troubles cannot be relieved by any treatment. To 
illustrate this fact I will give a statement of two cases 
which came under my personal observation and which 
at the time of their occurrence caused much comment 
by the press and the public in general. 

Two very highly esteemed young ladies, w T ho were 
strong adherents of the Catholic faith, were for years 
afflicted in such a manner that neither could walk. 
For a long period both took treatment from the same 
physician without securing beneficial results. After 
medical treatment had failed, it was decided to resort 
to the "power of prayer." A time was appointed for 
the two invalids to be taken to the church. The priest 
and the congregation joined in earnest prayer for the 
speedy restoration of the two invalid members. To 
the great delight and astonishment of all participants, 
one of the afflicted patients arose and walked, while 
the other, who had as great if not greater faith was 
not benefited. The lady who was not benefited had 
read and heard much regarding the wonderful cures 
that were being reported from Lourdes, France, and 
was determined to make the pilgrimage, notwithstand- 
ing her priest discouraged the attempt, as he without 



14 Introduction 

doubt knew that when a person possessed all the faith 
possible in prayer as a curative agent, just as good 
results could be secured in one country as in another. 

However, everything was made ready for the pil- 
grimage, and the young lady with her sister, her father 
and the priest, made the journey safely, and at the 
appointed time the great and final test was made with- 
out any relief or benefit in the least. The disappoint- 
ment was so great that all hope was lost, and the poor 
lady returned to her home broken in health and spirits, 
went into a decline, and passed away in a few months. 

This, to my mind, demonstrates beyond any doubt, 
that the efficacy of all forms of faith cure, absolutely 
depends upon the nature of the ailment. 

The lady who was cured was suffering from hypo- 
chondria, and required a very powerful nerve stimu- 
lant to arouse her from the lethargy into which she 
had fallen. 

The lady who was not cured was suffering from an 
organic trouble, which neither mind or medicine could 
alleviate. In this connection I will state that Lourdes 
stands preeminent as headquarters for Catholic Faith 
Cure. Here is located the Grotto Massaville, where, 
it is believed by the Catholics, that the Virgin Mary 
revealed herself to a peasant girl in 1858, at which 



Introduction 15 

time a living spring spontaneously belched from the 
earth an abundant supply of water, and it has for years 
been observed by the Catholics as sacred. Here, in 
1876, a large church was consecrated by thirty-five 
cardinals and many high ecclesiastical dignitaries. Mil- 
lions of people have made pilgrimages to this shrine 
for worship and for cure. It is conceded by all in the 
faith, that if the afflicted are not benefited here, that 
it is of little use to try elsewhere. This has a very 
depressing effect upon those who are not benefited, as 
they lose that faith which had previously been a most 
prominent factor in aiding them to endure their afflic- 
tion, and hope that possibly an ultimate restoration 
was in store for them. 

While living in France I made an effort to gain 
what knowledge I could concerning the absolute re- 
sults, and percentage of cures at Lourdes, and ascer- 
tained that the percentage of cures were so small that 
the French government had serious thoughts of put- 
ting a stop to these pilgrimages, as scores of people are 
made miserable despondents the remainder of their 
lives, and in many cases death is the result of the great 
disappointment. 

It is bad policy in any faith cure, to set a certain day 
for a great transformation to take place, for if the 



1 6 Introduction 

desired results are not obtained, faith in the patient is 
lost and serious results are sure to follow. 

It often occurs that people take mental treatment 
weeks, months, and even years before a very marked 
change is observed. A physician informed me a short 
time since, that he had just taken a patient who had 
been taking mental treatments constantly for four 
years without perceptible benefit. 

A person who would stick to any ism for four years 
without being benefited must have the genuine "Simon 
pure" faith, she had been told every week for four 
years that nothing ailed her, but for all that she claimed 
she did not feel right. 

To continue my attempt to show that there is abso- 
lutely nothing new in any of these modern cults I give 
in this connection an illustration of what I witnessed 
in the great St. Peter's church in Rome, where thou- 
sands of pilgrims come from all parts of the globe for 
the purpose of obtaining spiritual and physical aid by 
kissing the toe of St. Peter's statue. To the mass of 
tourists who are not followers of the Catholic faith, 
and to all who have never made a study of psychology 
or suggestive therapeutics, this performance looks like 
pure nonsense, and you will hear such remarks as, 
"How silly," "What are they trying to do," "What a 















m> W 








<frn^.JHi 


" f 



KISSING SAINT PETER'S TOE 



Introduction ly 

foolish belief to think kissing the toe of a statue would 
benefit a person." 

To myself this was a great and valuable lesson, and 
a most interesting and convincing experience, which 
demonstrated the power of suggestion. 

The wonderful change that came over the faces of 
these people the moment they kissed the Pope's toe, 
demonstrated to me the fact that the great majority 
of humanity are susceptible to suggestion. Many of 
these people without doubt had been looking forward 
for years to a time when they could enter the great 
Sanctuary of St. Peter in Rome, and enjoy the divine 
blessings they would surely receive by kissing the toe 
of St. Peter. These benefits had been suggested to 
them for years, consequently they were to a marked 
degree being governed by the law of suggestion, they 
thoroughly believed they would be thrilled with a 
marked degree of enjoyment, and in most cases you 
could easily see that their faces beamed with delight 
and satisfaction. 

Occasionally you would see some one who had not 
obtained perfect satisfaction, break into the ranks and 
get a second kiss, then pass out with a radiant coun- 
tenance, and satisfied expression. I have every con- 
fidence in the reports that are made by these people 



1 8 Introduction 

concerning the wonderful benefits, both mental and 
physical, that they receive. 

This is but one of the many similar places where 
mental healing has been resorted to for ages. In other 
churches in Rome, you can see scores of canes and 
crutches that were left by cripples who were healed by 
faith. I could enumerate dozens of such places that 
have been in operation for centuries, but will not do 
so in this connection as I started out to speak of only 
what had come under my personal observation. 

While living in Los Angeles, California, I had an 
excellent opportunity to study different cults and cures. 
If they are not all represented in Los Angeles, I can- 
not imagine what ism has not found its way there. 
Years ago I attended some of the experience meetings 
in Chicago, when Alexander Dowie was in his prime, 
and I thought at the time, when I heard the many 
testimonials given by people who had been "Snatched 
from the grave" by their leader, that quite miraculous 
things were being done in Chicago, but after attending 
a few of the meetings of the different cults in Los 
Angeles, I discovered that neither Dowie nor Chicago 
was in it for a minute. In Los Angeles it does not 
matter whether they are talking about faith cure, or 
the climate, their claims are not retarded by extreme 



Introduction 19 

modesty. If it rains in the day time it is very unusual, 
for the rain in previous years had always fallen at 
night and had always been of a peculiar quality that 
would neither wet your clothes or make the streets 
muddy. 

While it is very natural that the subject in the ex- 
perience meetings of any of the different cults would 
make out a pretty strong case in favor of their cult, we 
must acknowledge a large degree of sincerity in the 
reports of all members of different denominations of 
faith cure. 

Each cult will claim that their particular sect is en- 
tirely different from all others and give a superabun- 
dance of proof from different parts of the scripture to 
substantiate their claim, and to prove that they are the 
only people who can interpret the Bible correctly and 
who are the Lord's chosen flock and all the rest of the 
world is in error. Notwithstanding the fact that each 
sect claims to be the only one that is on the right track, 
the testimonials in their experience meetings all have 
the same ring and all report equally marvelous cures 
through faith. It matters not how inconsistent the 
claims may be, if they are promulgated in the name of 
Religion there is sure to be plenty of followers. 

In Michigan there is a sect which is known as the 



20 Introduction 

Lost Tribe of Israel, who claim that if they live a life 
which is absolutely free from sin that they will never 
die. 

I have often visited their place, which is very beau- 
tiful; they have fine buildings, hundreds of acres of 
land, with beautiful shade trees, groves, flowers, etc. 
The visitor would at once be impressed with the sur- 
roundings, and exclaim to himself: I have found a 
magnificent illustration of intelligence and refinement. 
You might converse for hours with these people with- 
out detecting anything abnormal in their mentality 
until the subject of religion was approached. Here is 
where reason withdraws and dogmatic faith asserts 
itself. They are in a semi-hypnotic condition, which 
has been produced by a suggestion and affirmation, 
forcibly repeated until the organs of Reverence and 
Ideality have surrendered to a stronger power, conse- 
quently it is useless to endeavor to reason on certain 
subjects with these people, for they no longer have 
control of these special faculties, while all the other 
organs of the brain may be absolutely normal. I know 
this to be a fact, for I have, in experimenting with 
different subjects, demonstrated that a powerful sug- 
gestion made to certain people concerning certain 
things, would make such a positive impression upon 



Introduction 21 

their minds that all the reasoning that the wisest peo- 
ple on earth could bring to bear, would be fruitless. 
These people look upon sickness as being sinful, and 
upon death as an abominable disgrace. They will 
never look upon the face of a brother or sister who has 
submitted to death, as they claim that death is a lack 
of faith and right living with God. 

One day an old gentleman about 80 years of age, 
was showing me some of their landscape gardening and 
remarked what a beautiful place they would have in a 
few hundred years. I remarked that there might be 
a bare possibility that we would not be here two or 
three hundred years from now. His answer was this : 
"We who have learned the true way do not count 
time, a hundred years is no more to us than a hundred 
days and I faithfully believe that I will be here to 
admire these surroundings a thousand years from now." 
Here was a case of Faith versus Reason. The average 
intelligent reader would at once remark that this man 
was simply insane; notwithstanding this fact let us 
compare his ideas with a few extracts taken from 
"Science and Health," page 224, it says: "Man in 
Science is neither young nor old. He has neither 
birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable, nor a 
migratory mind." "If man were dust in his earliest 



22 Introduction 

stage of existence, we might admit the hypothesis that 
he returns eventually to his primitive condition, but 
man was never more nor less than man," page 245. 
"The error of thinking that we are growing old, and 
the benefits of destroying that illusion are illustrated 
in a sketch from the history of an English woman. 
Years had not made her old, because she had taken no 
cognizance of passing time nor thought of herself 
growing old. She could not age while believing her- 
self young, for the mental state governed the physical." 
"Decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a neces- 
sity of nature, but an illusion." 

Now these illustrations imply precisely the same 
visionary ideas. No man or woman has ever been able 
to concoct any scheme that would defeat "Father 
Time ;" he comes around every year with precise regu- 
larity and marks us up with that indelible crayon which 
no ism, or cult has ever been able to escape or blot out. 

Notwithstanding the illusions and delusions which 
have been woven into these cults with a marked degree 
of dexterity, the fact still remains that beneficial re- 
sults have been obtained, and that thousands of people 
of a certain temperament have been aided to overcome 
sickness and disease, and prolong life. But when it 



Introduction 23 

comes to defying death and old age they weaken their 
cause by not being able to demonstrate their claims. 
I have given these illustrations to prove that the two 
great factors that produce results in all mental healing, 
are suggestion and faith, and credulous people who have 
never investigated the laws of suggestion or studied 
the general principles of psychology, nor heard of the 
many different cults and cures, are very easily made to 
believe that their leader has a most wonderful gift and 
Divine power direct from the Creator. 

COMPARISONS IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 

As I have previously stated, I will aim to give the 
reader sufficient matter from books of two authors of 
Christian Science, to enable him to judge which is 
the most Christian, and the most scientific reasoning. 
It is rather peculiar that both should select the same 
title when promulgating ideas so divergent. 

Beginning with page 27 is a reproduction of the 
important part of Christian Science by William 
Adams, published in 1850. Following the writings of 
Mr. Adams, I will give numerous extracts from Science 
and Health, by Mrs. Eddy, published in 1875. The 
remainder of the book will be devoted to what I con- 



24 Introduction 

sider the most practical methods of preserving health 
and curing disease. 

In order to stimulate the reader to be "keen" in his 
comparisons by careful reading, I will herewith present 
a few opinions of each author concerning the subject 
of the "Human Body." Mr. Adams says, "Reverence 
the Body," it is a great moral principle and precept, a 
dictate which nature herself utters with no faint voice, 
and which revelation explains and elucidates. "God 
made man in His own image." "The Body is mani- 
festly a material organization — a living organization, 
too, in the midst of forces." "Pleasure and Pain then, 
are for the good and evil of the body." "We admit, 
then, that man is body, and we say more, we say man 
is matter and subject to the law of matter, and man is 
spirit and subject to its laws." "Pleasure and Pain 
then, are for the Good and Evil of the Body." "Now, 
with reference to this subject, let us consider a little. 
Here we will say is a child — its eyes are delighted, 
naturally, with anything bright, clear, sparkling — it has 
never had experience — a lamp is brought close at hand 
to it — it puts its hand directly into the flame, and in- 
stantly the emotion of pain is caused in a very great 
degree, and the hand is withdrawn. Now observe, 
had there been no pain, the hand would have remained 



Introduction 25 

there, and have been destroyed/ * "Again, we look at 
the Body ; we find that it has Sensibility, the power of 
being affected by external things; that is, of feeling 
from them a sense of pleasure and of pain; that this is 
strictly and scientifically the sense that preserves the 
body from disorganization." 

The following extracts are taken from "Science and 
Health," written by Mrs. Eddy : 

"We call the body material; but it is as truly mor- 
tal mind, according to its degree, as is the material 
brain." 

"Matter, which can neither suffer nor enjo)', has no 
partnership with pain and pleasure, but mortal belief 
has such a partnership." 

"Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which 
affirms weariness, made that weariness." 

"You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the 
body is as material as the wheel. If it were not for 
what the human mind says of the body, the body, like 
the inanimate wheel would never be weary." 

"Destroy this illusion for matter cannot be weary." 

"The less mind there is manifested in matter the 
better. When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, 
the claw grows again. If the science of life were un- 
derstood, it would be found that the senses of mind 



26 Introduction 

are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then 
the human limb would be replaced as readily as the 
lobster's claw." 

"Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in mat- 
ter is an educated belief." 

"Nerves have no more sensation, apart from what 
belief bestows upon them, than the fibers of a plant." 

"Nerves are an element of the belief that there is 
sensation in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sen- 
sation." 

"Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, 
blood, bones and other material elements." 

"Man is incapable of sin, sickness and death." 

"Natural science, as it is commonly called, is not 
really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from 
the evidence of the material senses." 

Note. — I have given sufficient illustrations to con- 
vince the reader that this work on Comparative Chris- 
tian Science will be intensely interesting. 

The work of William Adams published in 1850 on 
Christian Science demonstrates the real meaning of the 
title. A reproduction of Mr. Adams' work begins on 
the next page. 



Christian Science 

By WILLIAMS ADAMS 
Published in 1850 



THE ELEMENTS OF 

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 



A TREATISE UPON 

MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND 
PRACTICE 

By William Adams, S. T. P., 

PBESBYTEB OF THE PBOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
IK THE DIOCESE OF "WISCONSIN 



"All things are double one against another, and God 
hath made nothing imperfect." — Jesus, Son of Strach. 

"Man's perfection is not by himself, nor by any thing 
in or of himself, but by that which is to him external." 



1850 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

WILLIAM ADAMS 

In the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for 
the Eastern District of Pennsylvania 



PREFACE. 

Naturalists tell us that the oak has a northern circle, 
beyond which it does not grow. It has also a limit 
that is set for it towards the south. Thus it has a 
region, marked out by definite limits, upon the surface 
of the earth, within which it grows, and out of which 
it cannot live. In the language of natural science, 
this is called its Habitat. Within that habitat it lives, 
varied in vigor and appearance according to circum- 
stances. The same tree, in sheltered valleys, shoots 
up a taller and more slender stem than the oak that 
braves the storm upon the mountainside. The timber 
also of that oak, that has grown slowly in the clefts 
of the rock, has a roughness and a knotty strength 
that is never found in that which has started up rapidly 
from rich and cultivated soils. All these differences, 
and a thousand more, may be produced, and exist in 
oaks that have come from acorns of the same parent- 
tree. 

To explain this, we know that all of these trees had, 
each of them, a constitution, a germ of vegetable life 

29 



30 Preface 

peculiar to the oak, suited to take up supplies from ex- 
ternal things, and to grow thereby, because it is a life. 

To use the example again, — wherever the tree 
grows, in the North or the South, in the valley or upon 
the mountains, from the clefted rock or in the fertile 
plains, — there amidst all variety of circumstance, the 
constitution is the same, — if the tree is anywhere ca- 
pable of living, it is as an oak that it lives, and not as 
any other tree. Postion modifies, but never wholly 
destroys or wholly changes the nature. 

The vigor of the tree, individually considered, its 
state and condition, are determined by these two ele- 
ments, Nature and Position, — and infinite varieties 
are produced in individuals, but the one element never 
wholly overcomes the other, — Position never entirely 
changes Nature, — Nature never wholly conquers Po- 
sition. We have been so careful in laying out pre- 
cisely, and illustrating this example, that our readers 
may clearly see, that wherever there exists organized 
life, then, if we would examine the state of the indi- 
vidual existence, these two elements must always be 
taken into account, — first, Nature, and secondly Posi- 
tion. 

So it is with all organized life. The Horse, in the 
dry deserts of Arabia, in the damp climate and sue- 



Preface 31 

culent pastures of Holland and Flanders, upon the high 
Pampas of South America, and again, upon our South- 
western Prairies, — in all these cases, the animals are 
very different. And in them, all the variety can be 
shown to have arisen from Position. The Nature can 
be proved to be the same in all, and the circumstances 
even be shown, in each particular case, that have modi- 
fied it into such very different forms. 

And upon this principle, all our researches into the 
nature of the animals are founded. We examine the 
Nature first, — that is, the organization in its various 
faculties and organs, its elements, powers, and con- 
stituent principles. Then we examine its Position, — 
the relation, that is, of all these to the circumstances 
of the country in which it dwells, — as to climate, and 
soil, and natural features, such as mountains and riv- 
ers, and their productions, animal, mineral and vege- 
table. And often, when in the Nature we have seen or- 
gans and faculties, the uses of which we could not at 
once discern, the consideration of Position shall at once 
flash light upon these problems, and again the facts of 
Nature evince the causes of Position. Nay, stranger 
still than this, — it has often happened in the case of 
animals that have been for ages tamed to the use of 
man, that the circumstances, which in the original 



7,2 Preface 

habitat surrounded them, have explained facts of their 
natural action that seemed unaccountable to them who 
had seen them only as tame. The law of Nature and 
Position is an universal one, and is the foundation of 
all true philosophy in reference to organized animal 
life. 

To extend the same principle upward to the Life 
of Man, to apply it to his Moral Being, is the object 
of this book. It is, as the reader may see, the principle 
of the motto, that I have chosen from Ecclesiasticus 
and placed upon my title-page, that says, "All things 
are double, one against another, and there is nothing 
imperfect." In other words, that there is no finite be- 
ing that in itself has its perfection; but only in being 
compared with a second can it be perfectly under- 
stood, — only in being united with another, can it per- 
fectly fulfill its appointed ends, — only in obtaining 
from some other that which it has not in itself, can it 
be perfect. This principle of Twofoldness, any think- 
ing man shall, upon calm and deep reflection, see to 
run through the world of created life. He shall see 
it, in reference to man, to be true in the words of my 
second motto, that "Man's perfection is not by himself, 
nor by anything in or of himself, but by that which is 
to him external" The Law of Duality, or to use a 



Preface 33 

better word, before employed, of Twofoldness, ex- 
tends to man as considered in every relation, as in the 
Home, in the Nation, in the Church, — as in his rela- 
tion to External Nature, to his brother men, and to his 
Almighty Creator and Father. 

The application of this principle to the moral na- 
ture of man, will be found to be the leading idea of 
this treatise, that from which all its other principles 
flow, — that in whose light, all the phenomena of our 
Moral Being are viewed, and by which they are ex- 
plained. 

We take it for granted herein, that man has a Moral 
Nature and constitution, as well as an animal and in- 
tellectual being; and that to man as a moral being 
there are external facts and institutions that corres- 
pond to this moral nature. This treatise seeks to dis- 
cover, define, and specify distinctly, the various 
faculties of the moral constitution of man, and so to 
classify them that they may assume a definite, scien- 
tific, and practical form. And to do this, it considers 
them in the two-fold point of view, as in themselves 
first, and secondly, their relation to those other ex- 
ternal fixed facts, which bear upon Moral Life, as 
the external circumstances of physical nature do upon 
the powers of vegetable or animal existence. This, as 



34 Preface 

I have said, is my leading principle, and in reference 
to this it is, that I define Ethics to be "the Science of 
Man's Nature and Position." 

And I can appeal to the Self-knowledge of every 
thoughtful man for the proof of the position I assume, 
that man is a being that has a Moral Constitution, 
composed of clear and definite elements, — and that 
this Moral Nature answers to, and is to be explained 
by moral influences and facts external to us. That 
this is the case with man considered as a race and as 
an individual, and that his moral growth depends upon 
these two conditions. 

And he that shall go with me through this treatise, 
I hope will find that moral science is not without a 
deep interest. For surely, each man in this world who 
knows that he is endowed with a Moral Nature, and 
is placed amidst circumstances, all of which may have 
a moral effect, must think the question to be deeply 
interesting, "How shall I so cultivate this, my Nature, 
and so employ this, my Position, as to arrive at the 
fullest maturity and completeness of my moral being, 
that I am capable of?" 

This is the question the author attempts to answer 
in this book, as a matter both of science, and also of 
practical action and guidance. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 



HUMAN NATURE 
CHAPTER I. 

Is man's nature 'good or evil?' — There is a nature 
perfectly indifferent as to good or evil. — It is that 
of the brutes, not of man. — Man's nature is not 
partly good and partly evil. — It is not essentially 
evil. — This proved by the monstrous conclusions 
which would follow. — It is then essentially a nature 
good in itself, not evil in itself — but fallen. 

As I have defined Ethics to be the Science of Man's 
Nature and Position, it is manifest that the whole sub- 
ject, scientifically treated, must embrace, at least in ef- 
fect, all questions that concern his nature and its rela- 
tion to external things. But as this is a thing plainly 
impossible, for what scientific system details all its 
applications, consequences and deductions? And as 

35 



3$ Christian Science 

the purpose of Science is to render such tediousness un- 
necessary, by giving principles and propositions that 
will imply all consequences, it seems to me that such 
should be the course with a true science of Ethics. 
And therefore I shall try to establish, in regular order, 
such conclusions as shall be the most natural, and the 
most fruitful in consequences; so that if possible, I 
may be able, principle after principle, and conclusion 
after conclusion, to give a system at once practical and 
scientific. 

This being my intention, the question which nat- 
urally comes first in a science of man's nature and 
position is this — 

"What is Man's Nature? Every man having the 
idea of good and evil — what is it with regard to good, 
and with regard to evil? Is it good, or is it evil?" 

I am aware the question will sound preposterous 
and absurd to many; but still it is a deeply important 
question. There are three modes in which man may 
have a moral quality, in which, what he does, may be 
described as good or evil, — his thoughts, his words, 
his actions. Let the reader mark this. The question 
is not, are man's thoughts good or evil ? are his words 
good or evil? are his actions good or evil? That is 
not the question; that can be plainly answered. Hb 



Human Nature 37 

thoughts, words and actions are not his nature. They 
come from it, certainly, but they are no more his na- 
ture than buds, flowers and fruits are the tree from 
which they come. To decide, then, about thoughts, 
words and actions, this is quite a different thing from 
deciding upon the qualty of his nature. 

I have said that this question is an important one ; I 
say that it is more, it is the central and primary one of 
Natural Ethics; one without which there can be no 
science of Ethics, no knowledge of it. It is not a high 
theoretic question which we may live in the world with- 
out discussing, and be better not discussing than en- 
tering upon it, as is the question of the "Origin of 
Evil," the question "Whence did evil come into the 
world, since God is all good and Almighty?" But it 
is a wholly practical one, — the question, "Is this na- 
ture, this which I have, this which is my nature as a 
man, good or evil ?" 

Now, manifestly all the possible answers that may 
be given to this question are contained in a few words. 
I may say that "it is good" — I may say that "it is evil" 
— I may say that "it is partly good and partly evil" — 
or I may say that it is "perfectly indifferent to either." 
These four embrace all the possible answers that can 
be given to the question, and the calm consideration of 



38 Christian Science 

them all, and the decision of it aright, is absolutely 
necessary to any progress at all in true Ethical Science. 
He that will study any science must first master the 
first principles, and without the complete and accurate 
knowledge of them he can make no progress; it is to 
him an utter impossibility. This question is the first 
principle in the science of which we treat. Decide it 
aright, and there is only one right answer of the four, 
and you shall be able to advance further onward. 
Take to yourself either of the three that are wrong, 
and the very foundation of religion and morality shall 
be astray with you; and only by God's grace against 
your convictions, only by the teachings of God's Provi- 
dence leading you against yourself, against your ideas 
and fancied knowledge, shall you go aright. 

Now, the fourth of these says that man's nature is 
indifferent, having no moral quality at all. Are there 
such natures in existence? There are. Those beings 
that we call "animals or brutes" — these are of that 
kind. 

We see in animals the most undoubted proofs that 
they reason; for this all natural history of modern 
times is full, that they argue and reason from premises 
to conclusions, just as man does. All kinds of that 
property called reasoning, we see in animals just the 



Human Nature 39 

same as in man, the same in kind, not the same in 
degree; the reasoning power is very manifestly exer- 
cised by the brutes. True it is, that we see it in them 
vastly inferior to another power, that of "instinct," 
which works towards ends of which it is perfectly un- 
conscious. Still the reasoning power is not the dis- 
tinguishing character of man, that which separates 
him from the animals, nor is "instinct" the peculiar 
possession of the Brute creation. For the beasts have 
reason, and man has instinct; each of them, however, 
in an inferior or less degree. The definition, then, 
that man is a reasoning animal, or an animal whose 
quality is to reason, is false; and that an animal is an 
organized machine or a being having only instinct, is 
false also. 

Now, what is the character that really differences 
the two natures, that of man and the beasts? It is 
not either reasoning power, nor is it instinct; still less 
is it any of the differences given by Locke or his fol- 
lowers. It is this very thing of moral indifference, 
that the nature of beasts and their actions are really 
neither good nor evil. That the sense and feeling of 
pleasure and pain is to them all, and that of moral 
good and moral evil, a good or an evil quality in ac- 
tions ; they have no feeling. 



40 Christian Science 

I do not say that man has a moral sense, as some 
of our modern philosophers talk; as if there were a 
peculiar faculty in him superadded to appetites, pas- 
sions, affections and reasoning powers, which has the 
peculiar charge of moral objects, as reasoning power 
has of reasoning, &c. ; so that the reasoning power 
reasons, the moral power feels, &c., morally. This is 
not what I say, but that man has a moral nature; 
so that no thought, word or action but has a moral 
quality, is either good or evil, and will so be judged, 
both by himself, by his fellow men and by his God. 

With regard to animals, it may be seen at once that 
their actions have no moral quality; that there is in 
them nothing of good or of evil, and that it is only 
by a metaphor we call them good or evil, as applied to 
our own uses. That is a good dog that watches best, 
that sets the best, or that kills rats the best, or that 
churns the farmer's milk the best, or that draws the 
beggar's cart the best. Change hands anl there is no 
goodness in them. 

And even temper in animals, to which with more of 
plausibility we may apply the terms "good" and "evil," 
even in this case it is only with reference to ourselves 
and our ideas that we apply the term. The generosity 
of the lion, the ferocity of the wolf, the untameable 



Human Nature 41 

fierceness of the wild ass, the cruelty of the tiger, the 
cunning of the fox, all these are but metaphors taken 
from our own nature. These things instead of being 
moral, having a good or evil quality, being deserving 
of praise or blame, are nought else than tempers aris- 
ing from the conformation of the animal, and abso- 
lutely necessary for its physical preservation. A lion 
is no more really "noble," because, with his immense 
muscular power and capacity of destruction, he stands 
out boldly in the center of the African desert, than a 
fox is mean and to be despised, because he with a 
feeble and small frame sneaks through the bushes. In 
the one temper as well as the other there is nothing 
moral, nothing immoral, nothing good, nothing evil, 
only a nature which is neither good nor evil, but in- 
different perfectly. 

The only apparent exception to this is the dog. The 
response which he makes to our feelings, his apparent 
sympathy with us, his faithfulness, all these make us 
lavish upon him epithets that express primarily moral 
qualities. This, however, is easily explained by the 
known fact, that there are some inferior animals that 
seem to have been created in reference to the wants 
of superior ones; with instincts in their natures bind- 
ing and tying them to the others, and causing them to 



42 Christian Science 

rejoice in their society. And thus the attachment of 
the dog to the man is no more capable of a moral in- 
terpretation than the attachment of the pilot-fish to the 
shark. And the same may be said of the horse and the 
elephant in relation to man. 

But this may be seen, still more plainly in the fact 
that we attribute no crime to brute animals, none of 
their actions come within the moral law of God and of 
society. The eagle murders not when he slays his 
prey; nor does the wolf commit a crime when we say 
that he steals; nor does the scorpion commit suicide 
or the rattlesnake when they destroy themselves with 
their own weapons turned against their own life. 

And, indeed, with an old master of subtlety, we 
need have no doubt that their good and their evil are 
not "Moral Good" and "Moral Evil;" but the Good 
of "Pleasure and Pain" so arranged, as by its opera- 
tion upon their animal frame, to subserve ends of 
which they are wholly unconscious. "I have no 
doubt," says Jerome Gardan, "that if the ox could 
speak he would call the grazier good, because he feeds 
oxen, and the butcher bad because he kills them, and 
yet there is no difference." 

Now, I wish my readers to have it fully and clearly 
established in their minds, that there is, and exists a 



Human Nature 43 

class of organized living beings, which has a nature 
purely indifferent, neither moral or immoral, to which 
bodily pleasure and pain is the sole guidance from the 
external world. 

Having laid this idea clearly before them, I shall 
ask them, appealing only to their own experience of 
their own nature, while it is manifest that the nature 
of the beast is an animal nature, of itself neither moral 
nor immoral, is it not equally manifest that man's na- 
ture is moral; that while "pleasure and pain" are 
guides to him as an animal, still as a man he has 
higher guides in justice and honesty, and law and 
conscience ? 

Thus have we established a broad distinction be- 
tween man and animals. Thus have we excluded one 
of the answers upon human nature, the one which sup- 
poses it to be indifferent, having no moral quality 
whatsoever. 

And before we go further, we shall stamp this 
opinion regarding our nature as one that always goes 
hand in hand with Atheism and the worst immorality. 

If our nature be indifferent, as that of the brutes is ; 
and, as theirs have no moral quality, then are we like 
in the ends we have to fulfill to them, we are incapable 
of immorality. If our nature be animal or indifferent, 



44 Christian Science 

then, as in consequence of this in them no act is crim- 
inal or sinful, or indeed can be so, in us, it must be the 
same. Then our sole business shall be to gratify our 
propensities, all of them ; our sole excitement to action, 
physical pleasure; our sole check physical pain. 
Wheresoever this doctrine with regard to the nature 
of man prevails, there it is the doctrine of Atheism and 
debauchery, and of grasping and selfish sensuality. 

The next answer to the question, "is the nature of 
man good or evil," that can be given, is manifestly 
that it is part good and part evil. The soul good and 
the body evil; or, the soul evil and the body good. 
Two strange varieties of opinion these are, but as 
strange as they are they have had many advocates. 

The last, that the soul of man is evil, his body good, 
implies the Transmigration of Souls; the dogma, that 
of Spirits that fell there were two classes, they who 
could rise again and were enwrapped in bodies of clay 
and passed from one to the other, until being purified 
they resumed their former state. The first, which 
answers that the Soul is Good, the Body Evil, implies 
that there are two Gods. Each omniscient, omnipo- 
tent and eternal. The one the God of Good, and the 
other the God of Evil. These answers, a little thought 
will show us imply these consequences. 



Human Nature 45 

The tenets themselves were once of great impor- 
tance, now of none. Man's nature is evidently a unity, 
although composed of soul and body; it must be good 
therefore or it must be evil ; it cannot be both together, 
the soul good and the body evil, or the soul evil and 
the body good. We may easily dismiss this the third 
answer as unsuitable. 

And now we have only two left to us. The one as- 
serts that "man's nature is evil/' the other "that it is 
good ;" one or other must be true. It is manifest then 
that the argument may go on by a two-fold division. 
The establishing of the one refutes the other; the ref- 
utation of the one is the establishment of the other. 
The reader we hope will bear this in mind, for the sub- 
jects to be considered in this treatise are so many and 
so important, that when we can clearly decide upon a 
doctrine, we shall not always say all we could have 
said in its defense or in its refutation. We shall be 
content to say what we count enough. 

Now, the nature of man is not indifferent. It is not 
partly good and partly evil ; it must then be essentially 
evil or essentially good. 

Say that it is essentiall evil — the nature of man — 
not merely his words, or his actions, or his thoughts 



46 Christian Science 

evil, but his nature; suppose that this is so, and what 
is the result and consequence? 

Why, this, that when he acts in accordance with his 
nature, then he acts evilly. Let him feel emotions of 
pity arising in his breast, and feel that it is in accord- 
ance with his nature to aid the distressed, then, as 
his nature is evil, it should be evil so to do. He feels 
that to be just, upright and honorable, is according to 
his nature, but according to the doctrine that nature 
is essentially evil, justice and uprightness and honesty 
shall be evil. And the opposite qualities, since opposite 
of evil is good, shall be good! Then shall all the af- 
fections which are natural be evil, the love of husband 
to wife, and the love of wife to husband, which is 
natural, be a thing base and vile and in every way to 
be shunned ; the love of parents to children to be evil. 
And all the natural feelings, the natural tendencies, 
the natural affections, all shall be bad, all evil. 

And then if man desires to live aright, since his na- 
ture is of itself wholly evil, his business shall be to op- 
pose nature. All things against nature shall be good, 
all according to nature shall be bad. To be malevolent 
shall be good, to be full of pity, evil ; to be kind-hearted 
shall be evil, to be harsh in life and conduct, good; 
to be merciful shall be wrong; to be cruel shall be 



Human Nature 47 

right; to be a peaceable citizen of a State, and an obe- 
dient child, shall be evil; and to be a lawless and des- 
perate outlaw or a parricide, shall be good. The 
chaste husband or wife, living according to the dictates 
of nature in marriage, shall be evil in that very thing ; 
the licentious adulterer shall be good. Monstrous con- 
sequences these, and outraging the natural feeling of 
all; and yet consequences that unavoidably follow 
from the monstrous paradox that human nature is es- 
sentially evil. 

Let us look at this dogma a little more plainly still. 
If this be so, then man requires no temptation, in fact 
cannot be tempted, for his nature being wholly evil, 
all his hopes, desires, fears, are of themselves evil es- 
sentially. He cannot be polluted, for of hiinself his 
nature is evil. All crimes are equal, for the nature 
from which all proceed is equally bad, being in itself 
essentially evil. All his sins then are equal in the eye 
of God, each equally deserving condemnation in the 
eye of infinite justice. And the innocent babe, if his 
nature be essentially evil, is a subject for limitless 
wrath equally with the hoary murderer and debauchee 
of eighty years. And all this in direct opposition to 
the Holy Scriptures. 

Nay, more than this. If man's nature be all evil, as 



48 Christian Science 

then all his evil temptations, thoughts, feeling and ac- 
tions must come from himself, then there can be no 
tempter to evil outside of him, — no devil; but a prin- 
ciple of evil in him. And that principle of evil is in, 
and is, the nature of man! In other words, man is 
Satan, and there is no Satan but man! 

Now, asking of my readers to look this notion 
straight in the face, to have in their minds the clear 
idea of it, is asking of them also to bear in mind that 
"thoughts," "words," and "actions," are not "human 
nature." I would ask them steadily to look at this 
doctrine, "that human nature is essentially evil," and 
ask themselves, do not these consequences follow from 
it really and unavoidably? 

This is a system of Morality, indeed! which makes 
it natural to do evil, unnatural to do good ; which puts 
law and conscience and justice all as evil ! And all the 
things that are naturally good, asserts that they are 
naturally evil. A strange system of Morality indeed, 
which begins by denying the possibility of any morals, 
any goodness, and asserting that all actions are bad, 
and all equally bad! 

This is a hideous Moral System, one that neverthe- 
less has existed from very ancient times. They are 
the tenets of a very ancient sect upon whom the prophet 



Human Nature 49 

Isaiah pronounces a woe : "Woe be to them that call 
evil good, and good evil, that put light for darkness 
and darkness for light;" to them the apostle Paul al- 
ludes, when he speaks of those who in the latter days 
should "forbid to marry, and command to abstain from 
meant, which God hath created to be received with 
thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth, 
for every creature of God is good, and nothing to be 
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving." 

Of such philosophy has there been an abundance, 
and unto it man's nature is essentially evil, and unto 
it from this central fact all nature and all creatures 
also become evil, and therefore it is that it forbids 
marriage, and orders to abstain from meats; whereas 
the apostle lays it down as plainly that all creatures 
arc good, and "that marriage is honorable in all." 

But in addition to the display of the natural conse- 
quences of this doctrine, that human nature is essen- 
tially evil, we may appeal to the consciousness of each 
individual, to the knowledge he has of himself. Does 
not each man feel that when he acts evilly or sins, that 
he acts against the laws of his own nature? That to 
act rightly and virtuously is in accordance with the 
law of his nature, and not against it? Does he not 
each time that he acts evilly, feel ashamed, condemned 



50 Christian Science 

by his own nature? Does he not feel that to cheat, to 
lie, to murder, so far from being natural, are directly 
against his nature? Surely, all the experience that 
man has of himself, all this tells him that his nature 
is not essentially evil. 

And I confess that I have been most heartily 
ashamed of men who from the pulpit preach this hor- 
rid notion, never having thought of its consequences 
or of its nature ; and then, to establish it, have told un- 
truths as great. Tell the man who has bent in agony 
over the sick bed of a dying wife, who for months, 
without hope of reward, has watched, and wept, and 
sympathized, — tell him this is no good act, but purely 
evil and sinful. And then, in order to prove such a 
monstrous paradox, tell him that it was done from 
selfish motives, and nature will rise and give you the 
lie ; and the man will feel and speak as strongly of you 
as did Paul of the men that preached this doctrine of 
old, as "speaking lies in hypocrisy, having the con- 
science seared as with a hot iron." 

Tell him that morality is not only of no good, but 
downright sinful; and Nature's law shall tell him di- 
rectly the contrary, and the Bible will say to him, 
"When the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by 



Human Nature 51 

nature the things contained in the law, then are they 
a law unto themselves." 

Take the hoary desperado, the pirate and cut-throat, 
and drunkard and debauchee, from the Indian seas, 
and place him side by side on the same level with a 
young innocent girl, from an unpolluted home, and 
nature's consciousness of truth shall declare your no- 
tions false. 

It follows, then, that the nature of man cannot be 
in itself essentially evil. 

And by the exclusion of the three of the only four 
possible answers, it must be that we affirm the one re- 
maining, "that Human Nature is of itself and in itself 
essentially good." 

We exclude the three, and this affirms the one. The 
proof, therefore, of it at the present is exclusive and 
negative, rather than positive. We therefore insist 
upon it as a right, of logical necessity due to us, that 
objections against the conclusion be reserved until we 
come to the positive proof. In the mean time, we 
would discuss another part of the subject as prepara- 
tory to this positive proof. 



52 Christian Science 

Notes to Chapter I. 

Upon this doctrine, that "Human Nature is essen- 
tially evil," it may seem to some persons strange that 
we should spend so much time in displaying its evil 
consequences and developing them. Yet let such per- 
sons know that all these consequences have not only 
been deduced as logical conclusions, but they have been 
preached and acted out by perhaps the vilest and most 
evil of all the ancient sects, the Manichseans. These 
men took it that man's nature is essentially evil, and 
carried out their doctrine to the extremest degree, as 
history will show. 

For this reason we have brought the dogma, in all 
its consequences, clearly and distinctly before the 
minds of our readers. We would have them see its 
untruth distinctly and decidedly. For that man's na- 
ture is not essentially evil, but a nature which although 
fallen is in its nature good; this is the first principle of 
all morality. 

I would also add, that this is the unanimous decision 
of the early Christian Church. 



HUMAN NATURE 

CHAPTER II. 

What is the nature of Good and Evil — The highest 
good, and the means of discovering it. 

In our last chapter we used a phrase "Human Na- 
ture," for the constitution of man, as consisting 
of body, soul and spirit. By this word we 
meant the whole nature of man considered gen- 
erally, without reference to the peculiarities of in- 
dividuals or of nations; "the man/' generally. We 
asked, then, whether it were "evil or good," as con- 
sidering this as the first question, the fundamental one 
of all Ethics. And we decided it in a negative and ex- 
clusive way, that Human Nature must be in itself 
good, and not evil. 

And now we would have our readers remark, that 
we have used the terms "good and evil" often. We 
employed them because we knew that human nature 
was good, and that therefore each one, without ex- 
plaining, would readily understand that which we 

53 



54 Christian Science 

meant. But now it is time to examine more closely 
into the meaning of these terms. 

The first remark we shall make is this, that when 
we establish what is "good," we establish also the 
highest end of man, that after which he should the 
most aim, and at the same time we establish the su- 
preme rule of his conduct. 

For instance, if the supreme good of man be in 
Utility, then as the supreme law of life he should aim 
only at Utility ; he should make this the measure of all 
his actions, and casting aside all other considerations, 
he should not ask, is this right, or just, or my duty? 
but, is this useful? And so with regard to all other 
criterions or tests whatsoever, that have been estab- 
lished of Good and Evil. The establishment of a 
highest law for man's actions, and of the highest reach 
of virtue and perfection to which his nature may climb. 

The question, then, of "good and evil,'' and their 
nature and criterion, is a very important one; the 
question of the "Highest Good" still more important. 
They are not theoretical, merely, but practical; and 
that in a very great degree, because they imply a law 
of action first, and secondly, a knowledge and govern- 
ance of our own nature according to it. 

For clearly, we can see in each individual that he 



Human Nature 55 

has something which he counts the Highest Good, to 
which he will sacrifice all inferior ; clearly we can see 
that this feeling is a law unto his nature, acted upon at 
all times by himself, and always referred to in his ac- 
tions. I have known Epicures, to whom, by an obser- 
vation of life and conduct, the Highest Good was the 
pleasures of the palate. I have known Epicureans to 
whom general ease and self-gratification was the High- 
est Good. I have known fathers and mothers to whom 
the advancement of their children was the Highest 
Good; men to whom the possession of property was 
the Highest Good; to whom power was the highest; 
to whom domestic happiness, or the love of their neigh- 
bors, or the sense and performance of their duty, or 
the doing of justice or of mercy ; I have known, in my 
short life, instances of all these; instances in which I 
could most plainly discover that these objects were sev- 
erally considered by men as the main object of their 
lives, the objects which, to obtain, they would count 
the highest good of their existence. And I have taken 
notice that the feeling of the object being the highest, 
became a rule of action, a law and measure by which 
all action was regulated. Surely, then, the question, 
"What is Good? What is the Highest Good?" is not 



56 Christian Science 

unimportant, since each one in life more or less debates 
upon it, and decides it for himself. 

With regard to the term "Highest Good,' , if the 
reader will look at the arrangement of objects of pur- 
suit that I have made, he will see that taken from the 
beginning, they manifestly mount up from lower to 
higher. The pleasures of the mere appetites, such as 
eating and drinking, are the lowest of all; then the 
pleasures of the passions are higher still, of the under- 
standing higher, of the affections higher, and of the 
moral feeling higher still. 

And thus is one object pursued as a good, higher 
and loftier than another; thus, by the fact that man is 
finite, must there be some that shall be the highest and 
the loftiest good not merely of the individual man, 
but of universal Human Nature. And the pursuit 
after this must be the supreme law of morality and of 
nature; and he that shall pursue this, shall fulfill en- 
tirely the end of his being. The idea, then, of the Su- 
preme Good is a practical one entirely. 

Now, in order to understand what this Supreme 
Good is, the first thing we are to understand is, what 
do we mean by this term "good" — the term "good," I 
say, as used by moral beings? "That which is use- 
ful to us in the physical world, 'some say/ causes 



Human Nature 57 

pleasure, and that which is destructive gives pain. So 
things that are pleasant you call 'good,' and painful, 
'bad/ And so from the sweetness of sugar, we by 
metaphor apply the idea to sweetness of temper; from 
the harshness of an acid taste, to harshness of con- 
duct; from the destructive nature of poisonous plants, 
to the destructive nature of vice ; and so we mount up 
to the idea of Moral Good and Evil, even the highest." 

And then all these ideas of justice, honesty, equity, 
truth, holiness ; all these are no realities in themselves, 
but metaphors, coming from mere earthly objects of 
the sense, and brought thence by our own reason ! 

What is good, then? A higher class answers, it is 
"that which is useful; has in it the maximum of Util- 
ity." Another makes good to be that which is "in the 
most accordance with our nature." And this has in it 
considerable loftiness, as also has that theory that 
supposes goodness to be that which is in accordance 
with the "eternal fitness of things," and that too that 
imagines good to be "that which is according to the 
idea of moral beauty," and a hundred theories besides, 
of which the man who has patience may examine as 
many as he likes. 

The last notion is this : that five ideas, Benevolence, 
Justice, Truth, Honesty, Order, make up the "central 



58 Christian Science 

idea of morality," or are its elements. These, un- 
doubtedly, are very good, all of them; though as for 
their being the central elements of the supreme law of 
action, the Summum Bonum, or Highest Good, I my- 
self being a Christian, should rather prefer the ancient 
elements of "faith, hope, and charity," which, as there 
are such facts as a God, a Gospel, a Salvation and a 
Spirit, I conceive are far more peculiarly central ele- 
ments of a Christian morality. 

Now, what is the fact? This it is, that no com- 
pounding, adding together, or intensifying of these 
ideas, or of any ideas whatsoever, will give us as a 
result the idea of Moral Goodness. The idea of Moral 
Goodness is an idea just as simple as any one of these 
ideas, and manifestly the highest moral idea of them 
all. 

We could easily show this by the old logical method 
of the consideration of what is technically called the 
comprehension and extension of the ideas. However, 
it may be easily seen by another means. In fact we 
may add a multitude of other qualities, having just as 
fair a title as these have, for instance, Holiness, Con- 
scientiousness, Temperance, Self-denial, &c, besides 
the three I before mentioned, of "faith, hope, and 
love." Because you call these morally good, and it is 



Human Nature 59 

true that they are so, it does not follow that they are 
the elements of moral good. So, to live according to 
the eternal fitness of things, or according to "the idea 
of moral beauty," these are morally good, but it does 
not follow that the idea of moral goodness is com- 
pounded of these. 

In truth, the idea of Moral Good is the highest of 
all moral ideas, neither made up nor compounded of 
any, having none above it, itself measuring all other 
moral ideas, and being measured of none. Of it no 
definition can be given, therefor; nothing but illustra- 
tion, by declaring the persons, or events, or qualities in 
which it is, or by showing how we attain it, but no 
definition. We may say of a wagon, it is a four- 
wheeled vehicle, giving thereby a description of its 
components; but of this we can give no such defini- 
tion. When one asks us, "What is the highest moral 
good?" we answer, "Moral Good." When he asks, 
"What is moral good?" we say, we do not analyze it — 
we cannot ; but we point you to your own feelings, and 
experience of your own nature, and we say that then 
you feel a perception of a quality that exists in all 
moral beings, a quality of moral good, or the absence 
of it, which is evil; which you feel to have a very real 



60 Christian Science 

and actual existence in responsible beings, and to 
which you apply the term moral good. 

We, therefore, enter not into the vain speculation 
of trying to analyze the nature of Moral Good, or at- 
tempting to define it. We say that man is a being 
whose nature is good, and not evil ; he has the idea of 
moral good as naturally as he that sees has the idea of 
sight ; that the idea is the same in one human being as 
it is in another. And that if we show the means 
whereby the idea and feeling is brought forth in man, 
and then increased in him, how it is cultivated, and 
how it is brought to perfection, then we shall have 
done somewhat of the work we set out to do, the work 
of a Christian Ethical Philosophy. 

In the meantime, how are we to measure the abun- 
dance of this quality in others or ourselves or how 
are we to learn what we desire to know of it ? In the 
first place, it is manifest that since our nature is good, 
and since it is one that is under a law, and its goodness 
is measured by that law, that that law, more or less, 
reveals to us moral goodness. It is manifest that the 
Home, the Family, the Church, that these all bring the 
idea to perfection, being all teaching institutions that 
have ever existed, and that for the purpose of bringing 



Human Nature 61 

forth the feeling in man, of increasing it, and bringing 
it to perfection. 

Live, then, according to your nature; according to 
what your nature has a feeling, you ought to be. Live 
according to the duties and teachings of the Family; 
for this, too, is a school of good ; and to the teachings 
of the Nation, for this is the same. And above all, 
remember that there is a Revelation, a Holy Spirit, a 
Church. The instructions of these agree with, con- 
firm, complete, and as it were, round the whole. 



THE CONSCIENCE 

CHAPTER III. 

We have in the previous chapters examined points 
the most important, and drawn conclusions which we 
believe are, to a system of Christian Science, funda- 
mental. The reader will please remember them, they 
are these — first, that the nature of man is good; sec- 
ondly, that all outward circumstances, which wait upon 
man in this world, are ministers to him of moral teach- 
ing. 

The first assertion was, that 'man's nature is good 
of itself by nature." This we asserted, with certain 
limitations. 

But at once the question comes up, "Does not man 
do evil?" and then, "How is this consistent with the 
fact that his nature is good ?" 

This is a question of deep importance we will say, 
and one which, upon this, our theme of Christian Sci- 
ence, has a most vital bearing. 

In answer to it, we say then, that man is not as a 
beast, he is not as a devil, he is man still, although he 

62 



The Conscience 63 

does evil; we call him not totally da proved, but fallen; 
we call not his state a state of total depravity, but of 
original sin. Let our reader remark this and ponder 
it well; the doctrine we teach in reference to man's 
state, by nature, declares him "fallen" — that is to say, 
as far gone as, still being a man, he can go from "orig- 
inal righteousness," — but not so far gone as to be a 
beast, or a fiend; it therefore applies not to him, the 
term "totally depraved," but the word "fallen." 

Now the very word "fallen," this itself will aid us 
to comprehend this difficult question, — it implies the 
having lapsed from a higher condition; it implies in- 
ability to come up to a standard; it implies imperfec- 
tion in natural qualities. 

The individual man in his course of life, we will say, 
intends to do some act ; in the moment of intention, be- 
fore he has acted, he receives the feeling of an inter- 
nal check, a moral negative to action, which is sud- 
denly interposed as an obstacle between the intention 
and the action, under the conditions I have before 
noted, and which I will not here again repeat. To 
overcome that obstacle, he must use an effort, and that 
a conscious voluntary effort; so that he knows, that of 
his own will, freely and knowingly, he breaks across 
that obstacle or impediment. Now if the Conscience 



64 Christian Science 

be in its due state, and perfect, invariably its negative 
shall be only upon the evil, — that which it forbids 
shall be evil. The man, therefore, in breaking through 
its obstacle, shall have willingly and consciously done 
evil, — done it freely and knowingly, and therefore 
have been guilty. 

But to resume, when he has done the action against 
which the Withholding Conscience protested, freely 
and knowingly and by an effort overcoming the bar- 
rier placed in his way., then at once it is chronicled by 
the Recording Conscience, and evermore it is liable to 
be brought up to him, and presented to his view as con- 
nected with a stain ; a feeling that to his moral nature, 
being of itself good, this evil action, done freely and 
knowingly, is that which to pure white a blotch of 
filth is, a Stain. And this, therefore, is one effect of 
evil done — the Stain upon the nature producing the 
Shame. The Stain is the effect on the nature; the 
Shame is the mental emotion corresponding to that 
effect. 

The Recording Conscience has the power, as we 
know, of bringing up that act with its Stain again and 
again to the individual man; but under what condi- 
tions this takes place, it is in vain for us to guess; and, 
so far as we from being able to decide upon the laws 



The Conscience 65 

by which it happens, that when we attempt to classify 
them we are perfectly unable to reach any decision. 
In some men sickness or danger shall always bring 
them up; in others, peculiar circumstances of life; in 
others, mere trifles at long intervals ; and in others, the 
recalling of these things shall be almost hourly; so 
that, perhaps, looking at the circumstances that con- 
cern the bringing up of past misdeeds by the Record- 
ing Conscience, the best thing to do, instead of trying 
to form laws of their representation to the mind, is 
to say, that they take place according to the purpose 
and will of the Omnipotent and Omnipresent Spirit, 
whose organ the Conscience is. So far with regard 
to the action of the Recording Conscience. 

We come now to the last action of the faculty, that 
of the Prophetic Conscience; and with regard to this, 
we have already said that Conscience, "by its very na- 
ture, attaches consequences in Eternity to actions done 
in Time.' , This, in action, is that part of the offices 
of the Conscience we call the "Prophetic Conscience;" 
and he that shall look at the two-fold nature of the 
Conscience, the first part as a faculty of man limited in 
power and in action to Time and Space, and yet im- 
mortal; and the second, the action upon that faculty 
of the Spirit of God, infinite in power and knowledge, 



66 Christian Science 

he that shall consider that in this faculty there is thus 
a concurrence of the Infinite with the Finite, and of the 
Spirit of God with the spirit of man, shall be at no loss 
to see how it is that naturally the idea of infinite con- 
sequences is connected with acts done in Time and 
Space. 

The question of the modes of exercising the Reason, 
this is to be the object of the present chapter. This 
we account to be one of the most important in all the 
range of Christian Science. We have shown that the 
Reason, in one respect, is certainly awakened uncon- 
sciously, which we count enough to enable us to go 
on and advance farther upon the subject. 

Now first, we will remark that in the life of man 
there are two states, alternating the one with the 
other, the state of Consciousness and the state of Un- 
consciousness ; the one corresponding generally to the 
time when the hemisphere which the individual in- 
habits is presented to the sun, the other to that when 
its face is withdrawn; waking corresponding with the 
light, sleeping with the darkness. We are Conscious 
in the one, Unconscious in the other. These two are 
separate and distinct states of being, each of them 
truly and really belonging unto man, each being a por- 
tion of the circle of his existence. 



The Conscience 6y 

The Germans, then, in their examination of nature 
and mind, start upon a ground entirely wrong when 
they say, "when we have exhausted that which is in 
man's consciousness, then we see the whole of his mind 
and the whole of his nature." Herein they blunder, — 
for because his "Consciousness" contains a great deal, 
his "Unconsciousness" does not therefore contain 
absolutely nothing. The negation of knowledge about 
it does not imply non-being in it. On the contrary, it 
is a state, a very peculiar state, and one which may be 
seen to be necessary for our physical being ; and which, 
as nature is one, may also be very fairly considered as 
having, if we only could adequately discern it, in it- 
self a necessity for our mental and moral nature. And 
so it may possess peculiarities of mental action, — of 
moral and spiritual impression and emotion, which, 
if we only could know them, would be of the greatest 
value in explaining the mysteries of our being. But as 
we cannot know them by Consciousness, or, indeed, by 
anything else than by vague speculation on facts that 
can hardly be systematized, we will not press this 
thought any further than merely to assert that the 
philosophy that says, "there is nothing in man's na- 
ture that is not in man's Consciousness," and that "to 



68 Christian Science 

exhaust our consciousness is to give a complete view 
of mind," is and must be false. 

For men have gone to rest with the determination to 
awake at a certain hour, and their minds, unconscious, 
and by no action of which they were cognizant, has, 
in their sleep, measured time, and at the appointed hour 
has awakened them. Students have retired with their 
mind set upon a lesson half-learned, and have awak- 
ened with it wholly understood. Nay, as in a case spec- 
ified by Rollin, the anxious mind, without the knowl- 
edge of the individual, has awakened his body, and he 
has gone through the whole process of composing a 
copy of Latin verses set him as a task, as well as 
through all the bodily labor of dressing himself, look- 
ing for his desk and pens and ink, and writing ; and in 
the morning he has been utterly unconscious of it. 

Many other facts might be brought forward to 
show the fallacy of the German fundamental, that "we 
are to search in our consciousness for a complete ac- 
count of our being;" and to show that the state of un- 
consciousness, instead of being a state of blank nega- 
tion, is a state of mystery, in which most certainly the 
nature of man, physical, mental, and spiritual, is at all 
times alive and capable of receiving impressions, and 
unquestionably is many times actively and energetically 



The Conscience 69 

at work when we know it not. A full and complete ac- 
count, then, of man's mind could be given only by 
cataloguing and classifying the phenomena that oc- 
cur, first, in the mind when it is "conscious," and sec- 
ondly, when it is "unconscious." And as the mind of 
man is regular, and his nature one, we may not doubt 
that as we call one set of waking mental actions "Mem- 
ory," and another "Reasoning," and another "Sensa- 
tion," so if we could penetrate the "Unconscious" state 
of our neighbor's mind, we should see belonging to 
that state peculiar modes of action and impression and 
feeling needing to be classified by new names and a new 
Terminology. And therein we should see how it 
comes to pass that all theories of dreaming, &c, are so 
imperfect, being solely the applying to one state of 
mind of those terms and laws applicable not to it, but 
to the contrary one; and we should learn, at least, in 
the absence of all means of penetrating into the "Un- 
conscious" state, to be a little more cautious in theor- 
izing. 

But more than this, we assert that there is in this 
world, even in the waking man, a state in which the 
individual is taught, and taught in the most efficient 
and powerful way, moral principle and moral truths 
unconsciously to himself; and that acting first, he then 



jo Christian Science 

learns, after he has for a long time acted, the truth and 
ground of action. 

We look upon the child taken by his parents to the 
house of God, and there, by the principles of Sympathy, 
Imitation, and Habit, acting as others do, and feeling 
as others feel, to be thereby learning principles without 
knowing it, which years after he may apply consciously, 
with full knowledge of their value. 

We look upon the father, with his rightful authority, 
the natural respect that he claims, and natural obedi- 
ence he enforces; and the mother, with her maternal 
love and her sympathy and counsel, as both of them 
thereby guiding their chillren constantly into action, 
and habitual action, of which the children cannot fully 
see the principle and consequences ; and yet by action so 
enforced upon them, they plant in them that principle 
in their nature, so that it really exists: and thus chil- 
dren receive moral and religious teaching of which 
they are perfectly unconscious. We look, too, upon the 
Nation as teaching in the same way, unconsciously; 
the citizen, from earliest childhood, being trained to act 
in certain ways and habits and modes of thought that 
are exclusively national, by means of habit, sympathy, 
national pride, and all those influences which are com- 
prised in what we call the Spirit of the nation. The 



The Conscience yi 

Family frames and moulds the child ; the Nation frames 
and moulds the citizen, at a time when he is perfectly- 
unconscious of that teaching ; nay, when he is incapable 
wholly of judging or of exerting his mental powers, 
we will not say against it, but in any way. The fact is 
a plain one, and we cannot get rid of it. It is a fact of 
the moral position of man. 

Another fact is equally plain in Morals. Get a man 
to act, and act habitually, so that his actions shall imply 
a principle, although he does not know it, and that shall 
prepare him for the acknowledgment of the principle. 
This is a fact realized by every one, so that there is in- 
deed a moral teaching that is unconscious, as well as a 
moral teaching that is conscious. The justice and 
grounds of this I shall now proceed to examine, and 
they rest on these facts. 

First. That "moral truths are the eternal facts of 
God's nature, not factitious or arbitrary notions, but 
the same for all, and immutable." 

Secondly. That "man has a faculty made expressly 
for the reception of these truths, which corresponds to 
them as does the bodily appetite to food." 

And thirdly. That "there are peculiar institutions 
organized to teach them, for that express purpose — the 
Family, the Nation, and the Church, the teachers of 



•J2 Christian Science 

which schools teach with an authority which they 
possess by their very situation, and are heard with a 
reverence and obedience which are in their pupils by 
virtue of their position." 



THE HEART OR AFFECTION 

CHAPTER IV. 

There is one especial difficulty about Ethics, in that 
it is a science of which each one has the requisite knowl- 
edge in his own consciousness ; and the presentation of 
it, then, in an external systematic form, is almost im- 
possible. The business, therefore, of the writer, so far 
as he can, is to present the truths in such a manner, 
that each one may recognize them as facts in his own 
nature, and accede to the rules drawn forth by the 
author ; but for putting it in a mechanically systematic 
order, it is a thing which the very nature of the science 
forbids. The true system in it is not of external ar- 
rangement, but of internal sequency, so that fact shall 
lead to fact, and principle be made a foundation-stone 
to principle; that so the reader shall be led to think 
upon his own nature and to see by it, that the principles 
of the science are true. For often it happens that a 
fact or truth shall be denied by him under the influence 
of prejudice or of ignorance, which, had he seen it in 
its Ethical connexion with others of which he would 

73 



74 Christian Science 

make no doubt, though they have never been brought 
up consciously to his mind, he would at once have 
acknowledged to be true. Let not the reader, then, ex- 
pect this external, mechanically systematic order from 
us; we are content if we present the various truths of 
Ethical Science in the peculiar systematic method which 
we have described above, — that form which we feel 
most appropriate to a science, all the facts of which are 
in existence in each one's breast. In accordance with 
these views, we would, in this chapter, as in its peculiar 
and appropriate place, present the subject of Sympathy 
(and perhaps some kindred truths), to the thought of 
our readers. 

The original meaning of the word Sympathy is 
"Harmony of the Affections" (sympatheia). It orig- 
inally implied not merely that state in which of two 
persons the feelings of the one being affected in a 
particular way, the feelings of the other, because of 
sympathy, shall be so affected, — so that "we rejoice 
with them which do rejoice, and weep with them which 
weep," although we have not the motive to rejoicing, 
or to sorrow, that they have, but only our sympathy 
with them. It was not taken, then, solely as this the 
passive effect, but also as a particular power that brings 
about the effect, and is a part of our nature. 



The Heart or Affection 75 

And by many beautiful comparisons this idea was 
supported, — by marvels of the most wondrous kind it 
was proved or impressed. The Philosophy of ancient 
Greece and of Middle-age Europe, teems with the won- 
ders of that miraculous principle, Sympathy. It was 
pointed out that two harps being tuned alike, and one 
being played, the chords of the other would follow the 
tune with a faint, sympathetic music. It was believed 
that precious stones had sympathies with peculiar per- 
sons and characters. Nay, even the influence of the 
stars shed their virtues upon men by Sympathy. And 
the herbs of the field wrought by " Sympathy. " And, 
stranger still, wounds could be healed at a distance by 
an ointment whose force depended upon "Sympathy," 
the ointment being smeared upon the weapon, not upon 
the wound ! In fact, he that shall look at the works of 
"Baptista Porta," or "Albertus Magnus," shall find 
there the strangest Natural Philosophy ever dreamed 
of, and all of it founded upon the one principle, 
Sympathy. 

But perhaps the Platonic notion, that supposes mar- 
riage to be the union of two souls that once, in their 
pre-existent state, were one, and the "sympathy" which 
urges them again to union, to send them unconsciously 
seeking it over the world, is the most interesting fable 



j6 Christian Science 

upon the point. Although hardly inferior to it may be 
counted that which supposes the mother's heart to be 
endued with such natural affection towards her child, 
that after it has been lost, if brought again into her 
presence, through secret sympathy her heart shall yearn 
towards it. And then again, that Middle-age persua- 
sion, by which two perfect friends shall, at the remotest 
distance have, under certain conditions, a true and per- 
fect knowledge of one another's state ; because of their 
friendship, the feelings of their hearts moving with a 
perfect sympathy. All these are interesting fables, 
showing nevertheless the feeling and persuasion of the 
existence of a Great Power and Principle in the Being 
of Man. 

We hold that there is actually and really such a 
power, perhaps not performing works so wonderful as 
these attributed to it, and yet rightly understood and 
rightly employed, very wonderful, and truly bringing 
about extraordinary results. We say, that taking away 
the marvels, and fabulous dreams, and high poetic fic- 
tions, the idea, as it was conceived of old, of a Sympathy 
or "Harmony of the Affections," by means of which 
effects ensue, that come from no mental power or 
conscious effort of the mind, but from an instinctive 
"harmony," or "discordance" of that power we have 



The Heart or Affection yy 

called the "Heart" or the "Affections," is most perfectly 
and entirely true. 

The idea, we say, as it was of old conceived, such as 
we have defined it, and as it is now understood by the 
ordinary and common mass of men. 

The idea, then, — that we may clearly define it, so 
that men may know precisely what they are required to 
examine, — is this, that "Sympathy is a natural har- 
mony by which, upon matters especially that concern 
the Affections, one human being shall, under certain 
conditions, feel, in despite of all concealment of lan- 
guage, the real state of the other." This asserts that 
there is in some men, under some circumstances, a 
naturally penetrative power, in a very great degree, that 
shall see the real state of others in despite all conceal- 
ment ; and that this power being particularly prominent 
in some minds, is yet an element in all. 

It asserts, for instance, that for that man that is really 
and sincerely compassionate in heart, we will say, or 
meek in temper, or truly pure minded, or affectionate, 
this feeling does, as it were, give a tone to his thoughts 
and emotions, all of them, and become a sort of key- 
note to his mind. Nay, that such is the power of this 
that we call "feeling," that it frames and forms anew, 
and gives an expression to all the features and all the 



78 Christian Science 

gestures. So that really and truly the predominant 
feeling comes in as a flavor in all actions, a key-note in 
all thoughts, a subtle writing upon the face, a language 
that speaks through every limb. And were man's 
senses as subtle as they are dull, and obtuse, from the 
slightest glance, the merest gesture, the fullness of the 
mind might be seen. 

Yet still, though the conscious sense be dull, the 
mind unconsciously will, by the power of sympathy, 
penetrate into the Heart; and at a glance, the man 
knows not how, feelings of suspicion will arise in his 
mind, or of dislike, or of liking, exactly in accordance 
wth the particular tone and temper of his own mind. 
So that if the Heart be pure and holy, and just, then 
shall that heart have a prophetic power, by which, when 
the impure, and unholy, and unjust are brought in con- 
tact with it, a secret warning shall speak in it, and en- 
join caution, and watchfulness, and suspicion, to be 
measured afterwards by facts carefully observed and 
inferences strictly drawn, and proofs; but still, — before 
all these, a warning, and one not to be neglected. 

Passive Sympathy then is the instinctive feeling of 
the harmony or discordance of the Moral Affections of 
others with our own. Perhaps it may be accounted for 
by the two principles above mentioned; first, that the 



The Heart or Affection 79 

predominant affection frames all the features and 
gestures to a form peculiar to itself, and gives, if we 
only had the subtilty to perceive it, a peculiarity to all 
our words, even to the very tone of our voices; and 
secondly, that the mind often acts so swiftly that we 
are unconscious of the action, and only perceive the 
results ; as it is when the experienced musician continues 
to play while he is conversing — that so the mind per- 
ceives the predominant moral feeling, or the want of 
it in the face of the man, unconscious of its own action, 
and presents the result only as a suspicion. These two 
principles, both which the reader will upon considera- 
tion see to be true, perhaps may explain the nature of 
"Sympathy," — perhaps only its operation. 

We are inclined to the latter view, that Sympathy is 
a separate power, and that these will only show the 
means by which it may operate. And the following are 
some of the grounds upon which we do so think. In the 
first place, we see clearly and distinctly that while men 
are individuals, and therefore each man is one — yet 
they are not individuals in the same sense in which the 
grain of sand upon the bank is one. Each man is one 
individually, — but the Human Race is one also. And 
the race is not one, as the bank of sand is one, by mere 
aggregation or accumulation of individual particles, 



80 Christian Science 

but rather is an organised oneness, as is the tree or any 
other living body; and hence, because of this, the in- 
dividual shall not only have tones, tempers, feelings, 
powers, that terminate in himself, but even against his 
own will, even unconsciously those that terminate in 
others. Hence is "Sympathy" the feeling preservative 
of that vital oneness of the race, by which the heart of 
one man shall vibrate in unison with the heart of an- 
other; and even by such things as may appear to be 
unreasonable, likes or dislikes, jealousies, suspicions, 
and other movements, of the nature and uses of which 
the man himself may be unconscious, may the vital 
coherence and unity of the Human Race be preserved ; 
and then we may, in support of this, point out the fact 
that all men are of one blood upon the earth, of one 
heart, and one feeling naturally, and that this oneness 
of being naturally suggests and warrants such a har- 
mony as we call Sympathy, as well as the sense and 
feeling of it. 

Hence it is that many, in all ages, even of the wisest 
and best, have believed in this mysterious power and its 
warnings ; and although we may not be able to establish 
the rules and laws of its action, still the condition of 
human nature and of the hearts of men, renders it very 
probable. We look upon it as at least so far established 



The Heart or Affection 81 

that a rule of action may be founded upon it, that may 
not be lightly disregarded. 

Man knows the things of his own heart. Each one 
knows for instance whether in religion he is sincere or 
an hyprocrite ; he knows whether he is inwardly licen- 
tious and adulterous, or inwardly pure; he knows 
whether he is inwardly honest or dishonest, and so 
forth. Now to those who are truly sincere within, 
truly honest, truly pure, I say, "there is sometimes 
against individuals a feeling of dislike even at the first ; 
and this is often a movement of "Natural Sympathy," 
— a warning to the pure in heart of the presence of 
impurity, to the honest of the presence of dishonesty, 
to the sincere of hypocrisy ; — not a proof, but only that 
which if we follow it up and keep it in our mind may 
lead to proof; — a kind of secret caution which secures 
the good in heart against the wicked, and defeats evil 
in its most crafty snares. 

This by its nature, as I have said, is not to be taken 
as a proof or a demonstration* but only as an indica- 
tion. It is to be taken as for ourselves not for others, 
a something that we shoidd ponder over, but hardly 
give currency to against the individual. 

But to the young, who have been reared in a holy 
Home, in purity of heart and thought, and in the great 



82 Christian Science 

blessing of having been members from childhood of 
the Church of God, under Parents that have realized 
and acted up to their duty — to them I say : 

"Never neglect the mysterious warning of Sympathy, 
if you yourselves know and feel that you have purity of 
heart internally, and sincerity of religious faith; if this 
be so, often shall you find this secret warning, to reveal 
to you that which to others of maturer minds is per- 
fectly unseen, — and this for your own good" 

So far with regard to "Sympathy" in one, and that 
a very important sense. Sympathy is taken in another 
sense as "the active power that one man has naturally 
of entering into the feelings of another, and being him- 
self affected as that other is :" of this we shall now treat. 

It is a very evident thing, that in all the feelings 
whatsoever that belong to the Heart, there is a power 
on the part of all men of entering into those that belong 
to another, and in it thus making them their own, and 
that without our having the causes for these feelings 
that the persons with whom we sympathize have. 

For instance, a neighbor shall lose a husband or a 
child, and the natural emotion shall excite in her grief — 
and then from the "power of Sympathy," we shall have 
the ability to feel her grief, actually and really, so that 



The Heart or Affection 83 

without suffering the sorrow we shall feel the emotion 
that it causes. 

I do not say, always to such a degree as the person 
upon whom the affliction has come ; and yet I dare not 
say that it has never been so, for I myself have seen 
grief by Sympathy, in which there was, to all appear- 
ance, more deep and vehement emotion and more suf- 
fering in those who sympathized than in the person with 
whom they did sympathize. 

But this I do say, that sympathy in this second sense, 
is a real and distinct power, by which one man is en- 
abled to enter into the emotions of another's heart, — 
all emotions, I say, that belong to the Affections, — 
and actually to take a part in them, to bear them, to 
suffer them, without the having had himself the original 
exciting cause, or indeed any exciting cause at all, save 
the Sympathy. A power of transference, as it were, 
belonging to our Nature, by which the man shall be 
able to convey to his own Affections and lay upon them 
the weight which the person with whom he sympathizes 
is bearing, or ought in proportion to his affliction have 
borne. A power by which the sorrow of one shall be 
divided and borne in part by another. A faculty by 
which, as in the external world, we help by the lever in 
lifting material burthens, and distribute the weight ; so 



84 Christian Science 

are we able to distribute the weight of the burthens and 
sorrow of the heart. 

Active Sympathy therefore we define to be the power 
of entering into the emotions of a fellow being and 
bearing them with him vicariously. 

The reasons that justify us in believing it so to be 
are, — first, the divine institution of Society as a real 
and vital organization, which exists coeval with man. 
Sympathy, then, we consider, as it were, the vital har- 
mony in the body of Society by which one heart is 
adapted to the other, and the needs and necessities of 
the one supplied by the other. It arises from that 
organization which makes humanity to be as it were 
one great body universally spread over the face of the 
earth, each member bound to the whole and to each 
individual by that vital harmony. Thus the oneness of 
the human race shall not be the oneness of aggregation 
by which the sands make up a bank of sand, it shall 
rather be the oneness of vital organization, by which 
the particles of the human body are one by vital force 
and vital harmony. This vital harmony in each par- 
ticle of the human frame we consider in the body of 
Society to be represented by Sympathy. 

We consider it again to be a separate power, and one 
primary to the Heart, which may be conjoined with 



The Heart or Affection 85 

almost all the feelings whatsoever, and which gives 
them a second range and a further flight that they had 
not of themselves. For instance, you may be right- 
eously angry for injustice done yourself; again, in- 
justice is done your neighbour; by the "power of 
Sympathy" your emotion of anger shall again be raised, 
and you shall be angry for him. It is manifest the 
cause for the emotion, and the emotion itself, may exist 
in him; and the capability of the emotion of anger be- 
ing excited, may be in you. But more than this is 
wanting, that you may feel indignation for the injury 
done to him: the faculty in your nature that supplies 
this power of entering into his feelings vicariously, is 
"Sympathy." The utmost similarity of nature, temper 
and habits may exist, but more than this is requisite to 
connect these parallels, and that is this power. And 
any one may look at the definition we have given, and 
by his own experience he shall see and feel that there 
is such a power; that it is not the agreement that arises 
from mere similarity of temper, nor the mere harmony 
of emotion arising from oneness in any emotion, but 
that it is a separate power that looks to society as an 
actual organization, not an aggregation, and that it 
may be united with any one emotion or feeling of the 
Heart, so as to transfer that emotion to ourselves. 



86 Christian Science 

We have placed it as the primary power of the 
Heart; that by which all other affections are extended 
from ourselves to our brethren in the one common hu- 
man nature. 

And he that shall fully consider it, shall see that the 
Appetites or Desires can hardly be objects of Sym- 
pathy, but strictly and only the "Affections." For in- 
stance, "hunger" and "thirst" — the emotion with which 
we see them is not Sympathy, — towards mere hunger 
we have no such feeling. But let "hunger" be the cause 
of "misery" and wretchedness, and at once we find our 
sympathy flow forth, and "compassion" is the result, 
the feeling that makes the distress of others and their 
misery our own. Again: it is not united with mere 
"Desires," the mental emotions that turn upon things, 
"love of property," "love of power," "love of fame," 
all these, which are turned towards things, we find that 
hardly can we sympathize with. But all those that are 
turned towards "persons," all, in other words, that are 
of the Heart or Affections, whose object is "persons" 
in "Society," to all these Sympathy may be united, and 
thence make these emotions existing in others our own. 
Hence we have correctly placed it among the Affec- 
tions, and as the first of them. 

But there is another observation with regard to its 



The Heart or Affection 87 

nature that we may make, and that is, that the power 
we have of entering into the "Affections" or Emotions 
of others varies very much. And the first broad distinc- 
tion is this, that far more both in amount of emotion and 
in easiness of being moved do we sympathize with the 
sad than with the joyful emotions. This is an assertion 
which each one's experience will manifest to him as 
true ; and the uses and ends of this provision of nature 
are easily seen. For, putting aside the question of 
Good and Evil, with regard to which it is that prepon- 
derates, and confining ourselves solely to that which 
regards pain and suffering, there is very little doubt 
that these last, which are not always evil, and are not 
in every case the attendants or the consequences of evil, 
do as to their amount greatly preponderate. 

This opinion we offer as an opinion, as to the actual 
amount of pain considered in itself physically, — believ- 
ing, at the same time, that a great deal of it, even by 
man, using his moral nature, can be converted into 
direct moral satisfaction, and that by God as our Father, 
it is used as the pain inflicted by a Father. This esti- 
mate as to the preponderance of pain, we say not un- 
happiness or evil, but pain — we shall support by the 
opinion of Bishop Butler. 

In his Sermon upon Compassion, he speaks thus : 



88 Christian Science 

"Suppose that we are capable of happiness and of 
misery in degrees equally intense and extreme, yet we 
are capable for the latter for a much longer time beyond 
all comparison. We see men in the tortures of pain for 
hours, days, and except the short supension of sleep, 
for months together without intermission ; to which no 
enjoyments of life do, in degree and continuance, bear 
any sort of proportion. And such is our constitution 
and that of the world about us, that anything may be- 
come the instrument of pain and sorrow to us. Thus 
almost any one man is capable of doing mischief to any 
other, although he may not be capable of doing him 
good ; and if he be capable of doing him some good, he 
is capable of doing him more evil. And it is in num- 
berless cases* much more in our power to lessen the 
miseries of others than to promote their positive happi- 
ness, any otherwise than as the former often includes 
the latter ; ease from misery occasioning, for some time, 
the greatest positive enjoyment." 

"This constitution of nature, namely, that it is so 
much more in our power to occasion, and likewise to 
lessen misery, than to promote positive happiness, 
plainly required a particular affection, to hinder us 
from abusing, and to incline us to make a right use of 
the former powers, i. e., the powers both to occasion 



The Heart or Affection 89 

and to lessen misery; over and above what was neces- 
sary to induce us to make a right use of the latter power, 
that of promoting positive happiness." 

Hence do we see the opinion of Butler that our nature 
is far more susceptible of misery than of happiness; 
that is, of itself, apart from all things else, and taking 
misery merely to be suffering of the nature, not to be 
"evil." 

From which susceptibility of the nature we may well 
argue that to man, standing apart from all protection, 
by himself, as an individual, misery clearly pre- 
dominates. This can be, I thinb proved distinctly by 
removing, first, the Church ; secondly, the Nation, and 
third, the Family ; and by so doing you place Man and 
Nature face to face, and see that to him life, apart from 
these sheltering influences, has more misery a thousand 
fold than pleasure. 

Again : by this we see clearly and distinctly another 
use of these organizations to be "the sheltering of man 
from misery," the interposing, as it were* of the shield 
of a positive institution between him and suffering. He 
that looks at the state of a well ordered Nation, in 
which the Law reigns and the national organization is 
in perfection of action, and considers the security to 
Life and Property thence ensuing, and then contrasts 



90 Christian Science 

it with anarchy and its consequences, may truly see 
that one end which the Nation fulfils, is to fence off 
from each individual within it sorrows he would have 
endured but for its existence. He that looks, then at 
the Family, shall see that in reference to all its members 
it is the same. And as a Minister of the Apostolic 
Church of Christ, I will say that there is no one that 
has been new-born within her holy fold by "Water and 
the Spirit," and has fed upon the bread of life from her 
altars* whether we interrogate him as to his own ex- 
perience or that of others, but must say that the Church 
of Christ is protective against many evils, preventive of 
much misery. Men who are non-professors may not 
believe it, but they who are and have been within the 
fold, know that such are its effects. The Family, the 
Nation, the Church, are institutions defensive against 
misery of their very nature, and tend to shield us from 
it. 

Now, this being seen — it being seen, too, how "man 
is made to mourn" we can see why we have Affections 
directed towards "persons;" why those affections are 
led by one, the first, that enables us to enter into the 
feelings of our fellow men, and why "Sympathy" is so 
much more with sorrow than with joy. Far more can 



The Heart or Affection 91 

we "weep with those that weep/' than "rejoice with 
them that do rejoice. ,; 

Hence the uses of the Affection are very clear and 
manifest ; it causes us directly to ward off misery from 
our neighbour, by making his sorrow affect us as if it 
were our own. The Affections are to Persons, and 
with every one of them it is joined, but chiefly with those 
that are remedies for the weakness, the woes, the 
miseries of man. In each of these it affects us with 
the emotions of others and makes us aid them as so 
moved we would aid ourselves. 

Another remark we would make that is very im- 
portant. It is well known that in the physical world the 
cause produces the effect infallibly, and by a mechanical 
operation, by which when the "cause" comes into being* 
then the "effect" ensues. Now, with regard to in- 
stinctive actions in the animals, they are manifestly of 
the like mechanical nature ; that which is done in man 
by those peculiar agences that we call the Affections, 
is done in them by an instinct which seems to be neces- 
sary, compulsory, mechanical. But with regard to 
man, it seems as if over the higher qualities of his spirit 
this law of "cause and effect" had very little 
sway — these the higher or spiritual qualities seem- 
ing to be causes to their own action, or to have 



9-2 Christian Science 

the power of originating internally their own operation, 
just as if a machine should set itself going. So seems 
it the Conscience can be influenced from without or 
from within, the motive in this last case coining from 
the Spiritual nature of the man, the Reason be in- 
fluenced in the same way, and so also the Affections 
and the Will. 

But external physical circumstances are bound in one 
law : that of "cause and effect." They form the web 
that 

"Hither and thither, 
To and fro, 
Is woven in the thundering loom of Time.' , 

Within this law, and in this web, are all things not 
Spiritual. With them "cause" produces "effect," and 
this again is "cause," again generating "effect." And 
so as from the first link stricken with the hammer, the 
sound shall vibrate into the last of the chain; so is 
power propagated through things physical, whether 
they be organic or animal, but the "Spiritual originates 
power internally," and can resist that which is exter- 
nally conveyed to it. 

The animal is, in respect to the emotions towards its 
fellows, mechanical. The irrisistible mechanical force 
of instinct shall cause the male wolf to aid the female, 



The Heart or Affection 93 

during the period of nursing the young, with the most 
anxious solicitude. Let her be wounded, and under 
another animal law he shall aid in tearing her to pieces. 
The instinct he cannot resist under its law of "cause 
and effect." 

But with regard to Sympathy being a spiritual faculty 
in man, it is manifestly in a great measure a voluntary 
thing. [Misery is presented to you — then, naturally, the 
Emotion of Sympathy arises — you may indulge in it or 
you may repress it; this you feel: you have power over 
it more or less — nay, in the course of time, you have a 
power so complete that you may almost entirely eradi- 
cate it. It is a known fact that men are able to com- 
pletely to abolish in themselves the feeling of Sympathy 
that it shall attend upon none of their emotions; that 
their own pain, their own weakness, their own sorrow, 
they shall feel with a most acute and sensitive affliction ; 
and shall see in their neighbours the extremest instances 
of the same, and feel no emotion leading them to aid. 
This, as the common experience of all, men can see to 
be a thing that occurs not unfrequently, and that it 
arises from a free and intentional exercise of the Will 
over the Sympathy, repressing it so constantly and 
habitually that finally it ceases to act, at least as to its 
functional actions, even although the faculty have not 



94 Christian Science 

been entirely destroyed. The natural deficiency of 
"Sympathy" in an individual is called "Cold-hearted- 
ness," or "Apathy," or an "Unsympathizing Disposi- 
tion" in the nomenclature of Natural Ethics. For the 
Ethical systems of so-called philosophers need an arti- 
ficial and invented nomenclature, but the system of 
Nature has no deficiency in natural epithets, or in 
natural arrangement of the subtlest kind. 

The acquired deficiency of "Sympathy" goes by an- 
other name, the appellation of "Hard-heartedness." 
And there is no doubt that there are such men as we 
have described a few paragraphs above, who have so 
cut off the fountains of natural sympathy in their bosom, 
that they shall walk through life with an unfeeling eye, 
as cold as the gaze of a marble statue, — a heart never 
warmed by aught of natural sympathy towards their 
fellows, but coolly calculating upon the extra gain of 
money that the hard pressure of poverty upon their fel- 
low-men, or the agony of distress, may wring out from 
them for themselves. That such a thing is a very com- 
mon circumstance indeed, is manifest to all. 

But nature will hardly be defrauded of her dues, and 
they who have so schooled their hearts, in this "Educa- 
tion of Selfishness," towards their fellows, they often 
find that for all their gains, God, and truth, and justice, 



The Heart or Affection 95 

cannot be escaped. For he that shall look at this pur- 
posed closing of the heart and the cutting off of the 
Sympathies, he shall see that naturally it has conse- 
quences that flow from itself and do avenge it. 

And first, to shut off from our fellow-men the flow of 
our sympathies, — to harden the heart voluntarily, and 
look upon them solely with an eye to gain, — this Self- 
discipline, if we know anything of the nature of the 
mind and of its diseases, is neither more nor less than 
a preparation and a training for Insanity. And were a 
physician to be asked how a sound-minded man could 
the soonest turn himself into a suicidal maniac, by a 
course of internal and voluntary mental action, he would 
give this, to cut off and restrain the Sympathies, so that 
they should not flow towards his fellows, that so the 
Heart should be perfectly alone and isolated from all 
participation and communion of feelings with other 
human beings. 

And when we look at the set and fixed ambition after 
money of the many, and the keenness with which they 
are alive to that object alone, and the coldness which 
they assume to all besides ; anl then see the accumulated 
number of cases of insanity growing year after year, 
we do connect the one with the other. We do say, if you 
would have a healthy and a sound mind, free from all 



96 Christian Science 

taint of disease, then let your Sympathy flow forth 
freely towards the poor, the distressed, the miserable, 
all that need succour and aid. "Rejoice with them that 
rejoice, and weep with them that weep," — and so you 
secure much rejoicing to yourselves, and avert much 
misery. 

Upon these considerations, regarding the nature of 
Sympathy, the only question that now remains to us, is 
the rules that result regarding it. And these come 
mainly from its nature as we have expounded it. It is 
in fact a most true principle, that the functions of a 
moral faculty, fully and adequately expounded, shall 
give true rules as to its guidance in reference to the ex- 
ternal facts, to which it is applicable. Thus Sympathy 
is in us the "faculty," and the external fact of the world 
to which it corresponds is "misery." Sympathy, then> 
bears us onward naturally, to take a share in others' 
grief, — that is the nature of it in us, — and the action 
and end of it is that thus we may relieve misery. 

Now we see many persons of naturally acute feel- 
ings of Sympathy, who are deeply and easily moved by 
facts of sorrow and misery, or even by high-wrought 
descriptions of it. They sympathize strongly, the feel- 
ing is deeply moving, delightful to a generous heart, has 
in itself something of the noblest and loftiest character. 



The Heart or Affection 97 

And so is it one that is in a measure pleasurable, an 
excitement, a stimulus ; nay, a luxury — "the luxury of 
woe." It ought to be carried out in action, — not carried 
out, it becomes a mere stimulus, and causes a moral 
disease of the worst kind, the disease of "Sentimen- 
talism." 

Let me not be thought to exaggerate, or to put undue 
importance upon it; but there is such a disease of the 
moral powers, and one that is most deeply injurious. 
Sympathy is given that we may share in and feel the 
grief of others, and from this be led to alleviate misery. 
And it is no harm to be susceptible of its influence; 
nay, to be acutely and exquisitely susceptible. But to 
indulge in the feeling, and to cut it away from the end; 
this is to harden the heart to a degree which hardly can 
be understood in its magnitude. 

And this is Sentimentalism* "the indulging of the 
feelings of sympathy as a stimulus and a mental excite- 
ment, without in any way aiding the distressed or 
diminishing the yum of Human Misery." 

Now I will say, that upon reading the biography of 
men of note in the world, some of the least generous, 
the most selfish, and the most devoid of all true feeling 
that the world has ever seen, as well as some of the 



98 Christian Scietice 

most bloodthirsty and obdurate in heart, villains with- 
out pity and without remorse, have been of this kind. 

Look at Rousseau, — the base thieving, lying im- 
postor ; — the man whose "Conf essions" are a record so 
shameless of all that can degrade man, that the only 
thing that can in any way acquit him, is the assertion 
of his insanity ; — the cold blooded wretch, whose legiti- 
mate children, immediately after birth, were placed in 
a basket and fastened to the gates of the Foundling 
Hospital, with a studied and systematic prevention of 
all future recognition. And this wretched fellow, over- 
flowed with the finest Sympathies! 

But they made his stock in trade of Eloquence and 
Pathos. And he made his bread by it, such as it was. 
And to himself he was, while he lived, a cancerous 
misery, and to a nation after his death* the cause of 
infinite corruption and infinite sorrow. This is the 
character of Rousseau, I believe, fairly and moderately 
drawn ; and I think I may say that the whole wretched- 
ness of this most miserable man arose from no one 
thing, besides this, that, possessed of the finer feelings 
of Sympathy in the highest and naturally the most 
exquisitely organized mode, he indulged in the feelings, 
and the excitement, and stimulus arising from them, 
at the same time never carrying them out into action. 



Heart or Affection 99 

And hence the highest gifts that might have ripened 
into the noblest character, and might even have cor- 
rected all the evils and disadvantages of his youth, 
actually perverted his nature, and aided in producing 
a heart thoroughly bad. 

We have dwelt upon him so long that we have hardly 
time to mention any more, although the tenderness of 
Robespierre's Sympathies are we believe a matter of 
History. And so of many other monsters of the same 
period. Suffice it to say that examples enough can be 
found in proof of our position, "that an indulgence in 
the feelings of Sympathy without carrying them out to 
the relief of actual distress, produces hardness of heart 
to such a degree that the most pitiless and cruel, the 
most licentious and unnatural, and ungrateful conduct 
shall be joined with the most overflowing and deeply 
thrilling sentiment/ ' And so shall natures that were 
intended to be of the noblest be turned into the basest 
and vilest. 

Having thus illustrated our position, we will say, as 
a practical conclusion, — "When you feel the emotion of 
Sympathy towards distress — let it always issue forth 
in actions, and in relief of sorrow. Be even jealous of 
it having any other issue. Let it not give eloquence to 
your tongue in describing it, save that this be made a 



ioo Christian Science 

means to aid you in relief. Commit it not to paper 
eloquently, nay not at all, but turn the whole current 
of emotion until the actual relief of wretchedness ; and 
drain not one streamlet from the full channel to devote 
to aught magnifying self ; and so upon your own heart 
and moral character in the fullest degree shall you find 
the effect of this first and most blessed of all natural 
affections." 

In fact* the highest and most ennobling of all actions 
of the moral faculty is the exercise of this quality under 
the laws that result from its own nature, and the laws 
of the governing powers generally. And if the many 
who are really and truly anxious to improve their moral 
nature by the natural means, and who now in vain seek 
it in books ; — if the many Christians in the Church that 
wish to be ripened in their hearts for Heaven; if they 
only could feel and know in practical truth, the effect 
of that "Sympathy" which in secret, apart from all 
motives that may be selfish, "feels" distress and misery, 
and at the same time "relieves" and aids — if they knew 
this and acted upon it, there would be higher and loftier 
characters in society, and a deeper and most sanctified 
Christianity. 

As the "Law" then of "sympathy" we say that the 
"feeling" is good of itself morally when it is joined with 



The Heart or Affection 101 

the "action," — bad when it is indulged without the 
action; and as the rule we say — "never indulge an 
emotion of Sympathy apart from an attempt to diminish 
the sum of misery." 

If you can relieve distress, do it subject to the law of 
Conscience and of Reason. If it is by any means out 
of your own power, utterly impossible — then at least 
you can pray to God through our Lord Jesus Christ 
for relief to the individual — for prayer is action of the 
highest and noblest kind; but never let an emotion of 
sympathy be excited in your heart that you do not aid 
misery in some way, — in this way at the least if none 
other be possible. 

And never let it be turned by you in any way to 
yourself, your glory, your praise, your benefit, for it is 
best directed, according to its nature, when wholly and 
entirely it tends to the relief of another's wretchedness. 
Then best for your own nature when it is wholly di- 
rected to another. 

Again, — be jealous of opportunities; and yourself, 
personally, come in contact with misery and distress 
for the sake of relieving them — delegate as little as you 
can to others, for in giving aid by the hand of another 
you give money — but you give not that which is more 
precious than money, personal sympathy ; and you lose 



102 Christian Science 

which is worth a great deal more to you, the moral 
schooling that the actual and personal exercise of this 
moral quality in your own Spiritual being shall give to 
your Heart. 

Two questions more complete the examination of this 
subject. The first, "are we always to permit the feeling 
of sympathy when it arises?" The second, "are we 
always to relieve distress when it occurs?" 

The first I think we can answer in the affirmative, 
provided — first, that it be not forbidden by the Law 
of Conscience or the Law of the Spiritual Reason — 
that is, the law of God ; and secondly, that the feeling 
be made to issue forth in action. 

Again, I think it is manifest that Human misery is 
always to be diminished under the same conditions. For 
instance, a cheat and an imposter, or the vilest character 
you can conceive, is starving — and that in consequence 
of his own villainies, or his own profligate conduct, — 
if you give him money wherewith he may relieve his 
misery, reason and experience tell you that with that 
money he will purchase the means of debauchery ; your 
Conscience and your reason both tell you therefore that 
the gift of money is wrong — but they tell you not that 
therefore you are to do nothing. The money was only 
for the purpose of relief of misery, — and that under 



The Heart or Affection 103 

the circumstances it could not relieve ; this only excuses 
you from aid in that particular way — you are still bound 
to seek some other means, which shall effectually bring 
about the result. 

Misery is, in all cases, so far as men are individually 
concerned, to be alleviated and put an end to. As far 
as men are not concerned individually, but where the 
obligation of the Family or the Nation is concerned, 
it is manifest that it is a different thing. Higher rela- 
tions here come in ; and the authoritative power of in- 
flicting not merely pain, but actual misery for beneficial 
purposes, is a power which belongs primarily to God, 
but to them secondarily, as institutions organized by 
God, and serving to carry out His Law. 

But with regard to personal misery between man and 
man, I think there is little doubt, that when the emotion 
of Sympathy carries us towards the relief of it, the fail- 
ure of the readiest means, or even of many means does 
not at all excuse us from the obligation to relieve it, but 
only from the using of that particular means. 

And secondly, — that it has been the consequence of 
sin or evil conduct, this by no means is an excuse from 
action of relief — but between man and man, the misery 
of the individual man is ever to be relieved, and aid that 
shall do this under the above rules and limitations, 
never to be refused. 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

CHAPTER V. 

Man is made up of three elements — the Body, the 
Animal Mind, the Spirit. We have looked at the 
Spirit, and seen whereunto its desires tend, in our ex- 
amination of its various powers. Again : we have seen 
the Animal Mind that its desire is towards visible 
things — things of the Senses, which, by virtue of his 
organization, man desires to have. Again : we look at 
the Body, we find that it has Sensibility, the power of 
being affected by external things, that is, of feeling 
from them the sense of Pleasure and of Pain ; that this 
is strictly and scientifically the sense that preserves the 
body from disorganization. Hence has man, as such, 
a threefold natural instinctive guide, born with him 
and awakened in him to act, by the action upon him of 
Society and Nature — first, the four spiritual senses, 
that we have so often enumerated, which bind him to 
God and to things eternal, immortal, invisible. 

Secondly: he has with reference to things seen, the 
sense "of having/ 9 the natural feeling of the Posses- 

104 



Body, Mind, Spirit 105 

sion of Property, of Life, and of Rights — this, we take 
it, belongs to the Mind, as one and the first of its 
faculties. 

And he that considers the origin of Property, he 
shall see that there is a natural instinct and ineradicable 
feeling in Man, by his being, the Desire of Having, 
which urges him to labor of mind and body* and thereby 
to obtain as his own that which he desires. It is an 
indestructible and fundamental faculty and feeling of 
his nature — to be ruled, of course, by law and equity, 
but not originating in them, but in the man's nature, 
concurring with the external means of gratifying it. 

The Desire to Have — Labor — Property — these are 
as the eye — its power of sight — things visible. They 
belong to the Individual Man, as the power of making 
honey, — the desire to make it, — and the honey, to the 
Bee. Inherent in Man, they are co-natural, always ex- 
isting ; belonging to the very nature of the being, and to 
that of the world wherein that being is. They can be 
regulated, never destroyed. This is the second natural 
tie, and it connects man in a very strong way with the 
world of things palpable to the senses and perceptible 
by them. 

Thirdly: the "Body" is manifestly a material organ- 
ization — a living organization, too, in the midst of 
forces, some of which are destructive, some tend to its 



106 Christian Science 

support. It needs, evidently, a protective sense, by 
which it shall be instinctively guarded against those 
that are destructive, and turned to those that are for 
its good — this is manifestly in what we call Sensibility, 
"the power of Sensation in the various tissues of the 
body, by which it has perceptions and emotions of 
Pleasure and Pain." This is branched out into the five 
Senses, which, besides their giving us knowledge of 
many qualities in bodies of which without them we 
should be otherwise ignorant, are of themselves organs 
of Pleasure and Pain. 

Now, with reference to this subject, let us consider a 
little. Here, we will say, is a Child — its eyes are de- 
lighted, naturally with anything bright, clear, sparkling 
— it has never had experience — a lamp is brought close 
at hand to it — it puts its hand directly into the flame. 
And instantly the emotion of pain is caused in a very 
great degree, and the hand is withdrawn. 

Now observe, had there been no Pain, the hand would 
have remained there* and have been destroyed ; and sec- 
ondly, the pain occurs before any material injury takes 
place, or rather cotemporaneous with the smallest, so 
as to be an immediate warning. This emotion, there- 
fore, is in its simplest form, purely defensive and pro- 
tective. 



Body, Mind, Spirit 107 

Again, look at Physical Pleasure, this in its simplest 
form tends manifestly to the preservation of the body, 
guiding us towards those physical things external, that 
most conduce to that end. To the uncorrupted appetite, 
the most pleasant food is always the most healthy. The 
things that to the senses uncorrupted give a natural 
feeling of pleasure are to them the best — and those 
things that are not pleasant but painful, are destructive. 

Now, when we look at the power of Habit and Ex- 
perience, we find that these experiences of Pleasure and 
Pain, by man and by the animals having bodily organ- 
ization, are enrolled in the memory, so that the experi- 
ence of the past is a guide to the present and the future, 
and thus* that the period of infancy in the animals as 
well as in man is by this means a period of Education 
with respect to outward things. 

Here then are three guides. The Spiritual Sense in 
reference to man's Spiritual being. The Sense of Hav- 
ing in reference to the mind. The Sense of Pleasure 
and Pain in reference to the integrity and preservation 
of the bodily organization. 

Pleasure and Pain then are strictly bodily, for the 
preservation of the Body, and when we apply them to 
the mind it is in a purely figurative sense. The delight 
for instance that a conscientious man has in obeying 
his conscience, is not only bodily pleasure, but is of a 



108 Christian Science 

kind so wholly and entirely different, that it may exist 
along with the highest degree of bodily pain, caused 
by that very action. 

Good and Evil then are not determined b} Pleasure 
and Pain ; for the Good is not always pleasant, nor the 
Evil always painful. The Good may bring exceeding 
Pain and the Evil exceeding Pleasure ; and yet we shall 
be bound to do the Good and not to do the Evil ; nay, 
to do the Good when the Pain is so great that it ends 
in the utter destruction of the body, as martyrs that 
have suffered death in fire, because they felt themselves 
bound to maintain the truth ; as patriots that have died 
in torments for their country's sake ; and as women that 
have borne all afflictions for their children, have found, 
and received the applause of all ages for it. 

Pleasure and Pain then are for the Good and Evil of 
the Body. They meddle not with the Good of the 
Spirit. It is not to be measured by them, but itself is 
to be superior to them, 

I have already, in the early part of this treatise, 
shown that each man has in his estimation some one 
object that he considers to be his Highest Good: — now 
let us take these ordinary objects we see men pursue, 
and we shall plainly see that they admit of a threefold 
division. If the man places his Highest Good in obey- 
ing his Conscience, or living with justice, holiness or 



Body, Mind, Spirit 109 

truth — then shall his Highest Good be in and wthin 
the regions of the Spirit or Mortal Being. If he places 
it in "Having," no matter what form of it, — having 
power, or having wealth, or having fame, or having 
property ; then it is within the animal mind. The man 
is Selfish. Again, if his main object be bodily Pleasure, 
no matter how or in what way it is, the man is Sensual. 

This is the true definition of Sensuality. The Sens- 
ual man makes the pleasure of the body his Highest 
Good — he lives for the sake of feeling bodily pleasure 
and avoiding bodily pain. 

When we consider the glutton, the drunkard, the 
epicure, the licentious man, in them all we shall see 
that they are all Sensual, they make the pleasure of 
the physical frame the end for which they live, and that 
by which they measure their Good and their Evil. 

And we see plainly that these are the Good and the 
Evil of the beasts that perish ; they have no other Good 
and Evil than physical Pleasure and Pain. 

We have already shown how what is ordinarily called 
viciousness of life is Sensuality in a great degree, 
properly so called. Another form of Sensuality we 
would now notice. 

There are persons who look upon vice and its pleas- 
ures, and pains ; and who by mere reason argue in this 



no Christian Science 

way: "Vice is injurious and destructive even to its own 
object, — the desire of high- wrought Physical happi- 
ness and its ecstacies of pleasure are attended by re- 
vulsions of the deepest physical distress — it shatters, 
destroys, ruins life and fortune and character, — and 
therefore man ought not to be vicious. But he may 
take the same desire that urges on the vicious man, the 
same Sensuality ; he may guide and govern it by reason 
and so his enjoyment shall be permanent, steady and 
equable. 

We admit, # then that man is body, — and we say more, 
we say man is matter and subject to the law of matter; 
man is living or animal body, and subject to its law; 
and man is spirit, and subject to its law; the laws co- 
exist, and the higher outrules the lower. The man is 
matter, — the mechanical forces then act upon each par- 
ticle of his frame; the chemical forces, too, act upon 
him as matter, and their result would be decay ; but he 
is also an animal body, and the vital forces neutralize 
the chemical and mechanical forces, and cause their 
effects not to ensue. And so say we : the mere physical 
motives would have overcome man, if he were only an 
animal ; but since he is a spiritual being as well, he has 
the power of resistance by an inward Will that is not 



Body, Mind, Spirit 1 1 1 

animal, but spiritual. The truth of this to nature and 
to our constitution may be seen from the above analogy. 

The question, then, may arise, "Is not this material 
organization, therefore, that we call the Body the cause 
in itself of our Evil?" We answer, that to make the 
Body rule and be the main object of our Good, this is 
to be Carnal or Sensual, and is, as we have shown, the 
source of multitudinous evil ; but the Body in itself, no 
more than the Spiritual part, is evil. The Body, ruled 
and governed, is in its proper place, and the Spirit, as 
ruling and governing, but one is no more evil by its 
nature than the other. 

The ordinacy that comes from Original Sin, and in- 
ability to be obedient to the Law of God, run through 
all parts of man's nature, — "the whole head is sick and 
the whole heart is faint" — and the Body is wounded as 
the Spiritual part is. But the one is not in its nature 
wholly or essentially evil any more than the other. 
The Body with its powers is in nature good* but fallen, 
just as the whole man is ; nay, there is not a function, 
or a desire, or appetite, or instinct of the Body that is 
not in itself good, when it is guided and governed by 
the Law of God. This is the decision of the Ancient 
Church against the Manichaeans, a decision worthy to 
be brought up again and again, and impressed and urged 



H2 Christian Science 

upon all men as one of the primal truths of a real 
Christian Science. 

Again: manifestly man was originally an immortal 
being. God made him not imperfect, but perfect in all 
his parts. And existing as he did in Time and Space, 
and the particles of his frame being in a perpetual How, 
it must necessarily be that this immortality of his should 
be an immortality of supply, a power in his frame of 
supply commensurate with decay, of restorative power* 
both internally and externally, equal to repair all pos- 
sible deterioration of particles. 

And accordingly we find that even now, in the very 
nature and being of man, there are what the physicians 
call the "Forces Medicatrices de la Nature," the "Me- 
dicinal powers of Nature Herself;" by which self -restor- 
ative power, in fact, all diseases are cured, he effect 
of what we call "Medicine" being only to remove ob- 
stacles in their way, while these cure. So that the human 
frame is a self-repairing machine, a self-healing animal 
organization. And this consideration led one of the 
greatest minds (Napoleon Bonaparte) of this century 
at once to pronounce the fact of the original immortality 
of man; for a self-re pairing machine, if its repairs are 
or can be equal to its decays, is or can be an always 
lasting machine. 



Body, Mind, Spirit 113 

I say it is a great moral principle and precept, 
"Reverence the Body," a dictate which nature herself 
utters with no faint voice, and which revelation ex- 
plains and elucidates. 

But this principle that the "body of man, although 
fallen from its original state, and so infected with the 
weaknesses that we have specified, is still not a body 
the same as those of the beasts, but something alto- 
gether different;" as the Apostle says, "there is one 
flesh of man and another flesh of beasts :" — this princi- 
ple we say, that the Body is thus to be reverenced, we 
shall not leave to these proofs only, but we shall seek 
a higher and loftier reason, one that concerns all hu- 
manity* and that gilds it with exceeding and abundant 
glory. 

And this is, that as a fact and truth, the Eternal 
Word, the Son of the Father, he who from eternity 
was "the manifestation of his glory, the express image 
of his person/' "dwelling in light unapproachable," the 
Word who "was in the beginning," and "was with God, 
and was God," "by whom all things were made," "in 
whom was life and that life the light of men" — "he 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 

This is the grand and glorious truth that makes the 
Body of man, even as it is fallen and imperfect, a glory, 



ii4 Christian Science 

not a shame ; a thing to be reverenced and respected, to 
be thought of with honour and tenderness of feeling. 

This, the fact that the "Everliving Word" of God 
assumed to himself really and truly a body, the same 
as that each of us possesses ; this is the great mystery 
of godliness, "Go d manifest in the flesh," 

And see ! how wonderful it is. Here is a babe — new- 
born, upon its mother's knee — and that babe, with its 
undeveloped mind, its speechless tongue, its soft and 
tender body, with no knowledge, no experience ; this is 
"God of the whole earth !" its Maker and King ! "God 
of God ! light of light ! very God of very God !" and all 
the natural feebleness, and weaknesses and miseries, 
and distresses of childhood — these are his ! God, born 
a child! and the Natural Body, — this he has assumed 
and bears ! 

The Body of the child, the Animal Mind, the Spirit 
■ — all these God the Word has assumed ! and unto them 
inseparably and eternally he is united ! This is a great 
wonder. 

And surely that Body, that Soul, those Mental 
Powers, made originally in God's image, and which God 
assumed, these cannot be in themselves essentially evil ; 
they must be good — "good, though fallen." The Body 
which the Eternal Word assumed, this is not to be 



Body t Mind, Spirit 115 

scorned, or despised, or looked upon as brutish, but held 
in all reverence. 

But more than this: the Word assumed it not as 
perfect; all its weaknesses, and deficiencies, and liabili- 
ties to temptation were still in the Redeemer's Body, — 
in the Body of "God, who shed for us his blood," were 
all these by which sin has access to us. "So that he was 
tempted in all things as we, only without sin;" and un- 
til he had passed through the resurrection gate of the 
grave, it to him was a "Natural" body, or a "Ter- 
restrial" body. And thus remaining in substance the 
same, the dross being cleansed away, the weakness hav- 
ing vanished, it became the Spiritual and Celestial body. 

So that unto a body having in nature but not in 
effects the same feebleness, deficiency, weaknesses that 
our body has, was the Word of God united. Our 
Bodies, then, we should not despise, or think brutally 
of for this natural weakness, but rather tenderly, since 
Christ passed through this life in a body that had the 
same weaknesses. 

Again: that body that he assumed of the Virgin 
Mary, his mother, this same flesh that was born of her 
was weak and mortal; suffered, and died and was 
buried; this body of the same humanity as mine, of 
the same blood, the same flesh, the same bones; this 



n6 Christian Science 

rose with the Word from the grave, a Glorified, 
Heavenly, Spiritual Body, never dying and perfect, and 
yet the same that was bom of the Virgin. And this 
Human Nature is thenceforth one with God the Word, 
two natures, God and Man. 

Thou that wouldst despise the body, look to this; — 
the "body," the "mind," the Spirit of Man,— Human 
Nature, — a true man, and at the same time God the 
Word, is seated upon the throne of Omnipotence ! Man 
is almighty, omniscient, eternal, immortal ! The Body 
of Man, the same as this my body, the same Flesh and 
the same Blood is exalted into heaven, there to sit for 
evermore upon the right hand of God. 

Should I not, therefore, reverence this my body, see- 
ing that there, in the council chamber of Omnipotence, 
in the most inmost shrine of the Presence, upon the 
most shining throne of glory, in the central light and 
unapproachable depths of God's splendor, there is united 
to the Word for ever, the Body born in Bethlehem, laid 
in the manger, the Human Body, that suffered and 
died, was buried and rose again? 

Great, truly, is the glory to> me and to my Body that 
this is so. And, therefore, with all reverence and re- 
spect shall I look upon the "Body of man." 



MARRIAGE 

CHAPTER VI. 

Wherever, as we have shown, Man appears, there 
Society appears, simultaneously as it were, and coeval 
with his existence. Man as made was one, it is true, at 
first, but afterwards, when "the Lord God said, It is 
not good that the man should be alone," from his flesh 
and bones was made a partner for him. And since then, 
man as born has always come into Society — he has 
been born into it. And this society made up of a pair, 
a Man and a woman living together — a Husband and a 
wife. This pair, with their offspring, constitute the 
Family. Their dwelling is called the Home. 

Hence result a multitude of relations of Persons — 
of Husband to Wife — of Wife to Husband — of Par- 
ents to Children — of Children to Parents — of Brothers 
to Sisters — of Sisters to Brothers. All these mani- 
festly are relations between Persons in Society, and 
that Society composed of these Persons is the Family. 

117 



n8 Christian Science 

And again, owing to the Nature of man, which is a 
nature in Space and Time, this Society, the Family, has 
a place of inhabitation, a dwelling to itself exclusive, 
in which only the one Family dwells or ought naturally 
to dwell, the Home; and the Society therein is, as it 
were, set apart from the rest of the world by visible 
and tangible limits; defined by them to be, although 
composed of many members and many relations natur- 
ally, still One only. One by exclusion of others from 
without; one by union of interests and feelings and 
mutual aid within; one by authority and by love. A 
oneness of organization with manifoldness of mem- 
bers and relations and affections. There is authority 
in the authority of the Father. And there also nat- 
urally exists the unity of love, represented in all its 
possible relations, and flowing, as it were, from one 
fountain, the Mother. 

We come now to examine into the nature of this 
Society, and the Affections that are in the heart 
toward it. "The Home, ,, we have entitled this chap- 
ter "and its Affections." 

And first, the question is, Whence comes it? How 
was it organized? Whence its Laws? This I con- 
ceive a question worth noting, but not worth examin- 
ing. I see the man that was made by the hand of God, 



Marriage 119 

by him brought into Society — but all men that are 
born, born into a family. The Family, I see, by the 
most ancient of histories — the Bible — to have been 
instituted of God. I then, as a plain matter of fact, 
take it for granted that it was so: that for one man 
and one woman to live together as Husband and 
Wife all their days, that this was the original insti- 
tution. That those who lived otherwise were not 
they who lived as at -first, but they who broke off and 
diverged from the original institution. Heathen may 
say, 

"First men crawled out from the earth, a brute and 
dumb class of animals, fighting with fists and nails 
for acorns and wild fruits, then with cudgels, and 
then with arms which necessity invented. Then their 
rude cries they gradually formed into articulate lan- 
guage; and lawgivers came, who taught them mar- 
riage and instructed them in law." 

This is the heathen view entirely. The Christian is, 
that marriage was the Original State, and Language a 
Divine gift, and Law a thing natural to man from his 
own Reason and from the nature of Society and of 
God; and. that if men were found in a state such as 
above described, it was because they had sunk volun- 
tarily into it. 



120 Christian Science 

But to resume : Men, asked any questions with re- 
gard to the Family when they are possessed with this 
Heathen notion, will answer, the Law makes it so ; tak- 
ing it for granted unwittingly that the Law could make 
it otherwise. 

But with regard to Marriage, does not the Law 
enact it ? Does it not inflict penalties upon those who 
shall transgress this enactment? and thereby first cast 
the Family into a precise and definite shape, and then 
by its action so retain it ? 

Granting that it does all this — all this will not be to 
constitute it, but only to protect, guarantee, and define 
it, by the consent and legislative power of the nation. 
If the thing be "right," then legislation sanctioning it 
is good ; but if it be not "right," then no legislation can 
make it so. 

The foundation, then, of the Family, and its Law, 
I seek in the Nature of Man and of Society, and in the 
express Law of God. These are they that make and 
constitute the Law of Marriage and the Law of the 
Family ; and human legislation is good so far as it ex- 
presses and reflects these. 

But when human legislation upon any point opposes 
these, and says that it shall not be so, but otherwise, 
then human legislation fails. Mohammed permitted 



Marriage 121 

and enacted polygamy — and Nature starts up and says, 
"Nay, it shall not be; polygamy, the allotment of many 
wives to one man, cannot be the Law of a Nation, for 
only one woman throughout a nation shall be born for 
one man." And thence throughout the nation that 
Jui i nan law is wholly inoperative as a law, that is, as 
an universal rule of life ; and the only effect is tolerated 
licentiousness among the rich and the great, and a de- 
cay of principle among the poor and a decrease of hap- 
piness and prosperity in the nation. 

If Law be according to the nature and being of Man 
and according to the Law of God, then it is Right, and 
sanctions that which is Right ; but if it be not "right," 
"ruled," that is, according to the Eternal measure of 
immutable and unchangeable morality, then it is not 
so good. The will of God externally — the Nature of 
Man internally, — as interpreted by the Universal Rea- 
son is Society, — these are the measure of all human 
legislation. And these always and for ever agree. 

Having so digressed, we shall, for a while, leave the 
legal consideration of "Marriage," the "Family," and 
the "Home," and go to the Ethical consideration, that 
which examines not its Laws under Legislation, but its 
foundations in the nature of man, and in the Law of 
God. 



122 Christian Science 

Now with regard to nature, we find the feelings of 
the oneness and exclusiveness of the marriage so prev • 
alent among man from the beginning, that it gave rise 
to many pretty and interesting fables. "The soul of 
man and woman," says one ancient Greek fable, "was 
originally one; it was then divided by Jove into two 
portions, half to one body, and half to the other; and 
hence the one soul, with instinctive patience, seeks its 
lost half, and will wander over the world for it, and, 
if united with it, shall be happy, if not, miserable." 

Behold a theory which at one blow accounts for all 
traveling and emigration, as well as all happiness and 
unhappiness of the marriage tie, and yet expressing 
sufficiently the sense the author of it had of the Spirit- 
ual Harmony of Marriage. 

"Behold," say the Cabalists — those Jewish retailers 
of absurd philosophy and foolish wisdom — "man was 
originaly one, both soul and body, the 'Ish Kadmon,' 
or primitive created being, and then God separated 
them, and man fell !" a most absurd and ridiculous no- 
tion, and yet showing the sense these strange philoso- 
phers had of the intimate relation of unity which the 
Masculine character bears to the Feminine. 

Strange fables, these, and yet bearing witness to the 



Marriage 123 

natural fact of unity brought about and realized by the 
marriage tie. 

In fact, through all time antecedent to Christ, the fa- 
bles of all nations, extravagant as they may be, still 
bear witness to the feeling and persuasions of an union 
the most intimate between the parties, an union of 
Body, Soul, and Spirit as effectual as if they had ac- 
tuary become one body, one soul, one spirit. And this 
persuasion and universal sentiment assumes manifold 
forms, some amusing and ridiculous, and some inter- 
esting and even sublime, according to the nature and 
temper of the narrators. 

And in philosophic earnestness and truth, when we 
examine the nature of Man and of Woman, we shall 
find that one is, as it were, the complement and coun- 
terpart of the other, that which renders it perfect; so 
that in the natural quest to feel and determine what 
would be the perfection of humanity, we should have to 
combine and unite the various attributes and qualities 
of both minds, the Masculine and the Feminine, and 
would find that all qualities of the one nature would, 
as it were, combine with and perfect those of the other. 

For instance, the intellect of man, being intellect, is 
still a very different thing in nature from the intellect 
of woman, but so different as to correspond to and 



124 Christian Science 

complete it. And when we come to imagine the height 
and perfection of intellect, not barely great intellect, 
but the utmost degree and topmost summit of all great- 
ness of mental power, then we naturally fall into a com- 
bination of both. We unite the tenderness, the grace, 
the delicacy of the Female Intellect, with the boldness, 
and strength, and robustness of the Masculine Mind; 
and we find this combination actually to exist in Shake- 
speare, Dante, Homer, in the men of the highest reach 
always, but not in men of second-rate powers. 

And when we look at these faces of the loftiest ge- 
nius, then shall we see the tenderness of the female 
countenance uniting itself with the strength of the 
masculine ; as may easily be seen in the portrait of 
Dante, of Shakespeare, or even of Milton. 

In the same way, if we take the whole nature — the 
Conscience, the Reason, the Affections, the Will, the 
Understanding — in the case of all these, they are the 
same in both sexes ; but in one there is a certain quality 
we call "Masculine," and in the other, a quality we call 
"Feminine," and one is supplementary, as it were, to 
the other, completes and perfects it. No wonder then 
that this constitutional adaptedness, this natural agree- 
ment of two different natures toward unity of end, 
should be explained by such extravagant philosophies, 



Marriage 125 

existent as that harmony is in all faculties of the whole 
being. 

For, as we have shown, the natural feeling of the 
human heart, expressed in many fables, many philoso- 
phies, and many legal enactments, is such that it con- 
fesses an union of the closest and most intimate kind 
between the Husband and the Wife — an union so 
closely drawn and intimate, that by no other words can 
we clearly express the fullness of it, than by these of 
the Anglo-Saxon law — "these two individuals make 
one Person." 

So, when we come to the Scriptures, we find the 
same doctrine most plainly held forth. The doctrine 
that these, being two individuals, "are one flesh," one 
humanity; that is, one, not only in union of interests, 
will, sympathies, and affections, for this is a figurative 
oneness, but one as no other oneness is : so one, that by 
Christ's law nothing but death can disunite them ; one, 
so that the unbelieving husband or wife is sanctified by 
the believer ; one, as Christ and his church are one ; one 
"in a mystery," that is to say, the fact is to us impos- 
sible and incomprehensible as a fact, yet, as being re- 
vealed to us by the word of God, is true; while the 
means whereby it is so, the grounds, the consequences 
of it, these lie far beyond us, deep hidden in the limit- 



126 Christian Science 

less power and the inscrutable wisdom of the eternal 
God. This, as may be seen from the words of St. Paul 
and of our Lord Jesus, is the true doctrine of the Scrip- 
ture and the Church concerning the marriage union. 

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, 
as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the 
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church; and he 
is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the church 
is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be subject to their 
own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your 
wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave 
himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it 
with the washing of water by the word, that he might 
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, 
or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy 
and without blemish. So ought men to love their 
wives as their own body. For he that loveth his wife 
loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own 
flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the 
Lord the church: for we are members of his body, his 
flesh, and his bones. For this cause shall a man leave 
his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his 
wife, and they two shall become one flesh. This is a 
great mystery; and this I apply to Christ and the 
church." 



Marriage 127 

This is the plain doctrine of Scripture : doctrine that 
says that, in the very being and constitution of man by 
his creation, there is a mystery in reference to mar- 
riage. 

A mystery, in the Scripture language, is "a thing 
declared to us as a fact, and therefore to be received 
upon the evidence of Almighty God, and yet the rea- 
sons and causes of which are hidden from us." So is 
"the Incarnation," the fact that God was born of a 
woman and assumed flesh, — this is a "mystery," a 
fact declared and shown, and for which, on natural 
grounds, the grounds of mere reason, we cannot ac- 
count. 

Thus marriage is a "Mystery," and the Mystery is, 
that as "Christ and the Church" are actually one, so 
should the husband and wife be one, — that as we, hav- 
ing mortal bodies here upon earth are united 
with his Spiritual and Immortal Humanity upon the 
throne, and are thus one with him, so should these two, 
the Man and the Woman, being two, become and be 
one flesh. 

And hence that, as the church obeys Christ, so should 
the wife obey the husband: not through compulsion, 
force, or fear, but through love, because obedience in 
love is the natural consequence of her position ; and so 



128 Christian Science 

should the husband love the wife, as Christ loved the 
church, because this is the natural consequence of his 
position, and because "she is his flesh, and no one 
hateth his own flesh." 

Here is the mystery. The apostle takes it for granted 
that they are actually and really one, and argues there- 
from as it is so; but the ground and the reason of the 
union that makes it so he does not declare — only that 
it is. 

From this fact, then, we shall deduce several conse- 
quences. 

ist. Marriage is not an institution of the Law, so 
that the Law institutes it as it institutes a Savings 
Bank, a Senate, a School, or an Observatory, and then 
can unmake it and reach the same end by another in- 
stitution of a different kind. This it is not, but an in- 
stitution of man's being, a law of his nature, as created 
a fact antecedent to all Human Law. So is marriage 
in Society, a lazv before all laws; and therefore the 
work of human law and man's legislation is to enforce 
upon the citizen these two laws, the innate law of na- 
ture, the outward law of God's revelation; but not to 
dream that they shall be able to make and unmake, 
form anew and remould that which is superior to them 
all, and to them all antecedent. 



Marriage 129 

Another conclusion we would draw from this : As 
marriage is a Mystery of our nature antecedent to all 
law, and Law has, as we have said, the power only to 
enforce, to regulate, and to protect ; hence all marriages 
wherein the individuals legally declare their desire and 
intention, before authorities constituted and established 
by law, to live together in the state of matrimony, are 
legal and valid marriages; the individual thereby en- 
abling the State to maintain and enforce that contract 
and agreement then made. 

But marriage contracted with prayer and religious 
rites, and the blessing of God's church, and solemn and 
appropriate services — this marriage is legal also and 
valid, and more than this, is blessed, being in accord- 
ance with the precept, "Whether ye eat or drink, or 
whatever ye do, do all to the honour and glory of God." 

We come now to the laws of Marriage — those prin- 
ciples, namely, of the ordinance, which arise, first, from 
its nature, as an institution of God in our very being 
and the being of society ; and, secondly, from the Laws 
of God concerning it. 

Here is the word of the Scripture plainly : "He that 
made them in the beginning, made them Male and Fe- 
male." 

God made man — He was the author of man's con- 



130 Christian Science 

stitution and being ; and in that being and constitution 
they were made by him, first, male and female — adapted 
by their very nature as man and woman to union in 
marriage ; — and, secondly, they were only two. 

"And because of this" — arising from this harmony 
of nature originally established by God, so that in every 
way the one should be the aid and counterpart to the 
other, the male to the female and the female to the male, 
by natural being and constitution, — upon this is founded 
the law of God, "for this reason, a man shall leave his 
father and mother, and shall be united to his wife, and 
they two shall become one flesh." 

"He shall leave father and mother," — the dearest 
ties shall be left of him; those that by nature are the 
closest being superseded by one still dearer and closer. 
And this in consequence of the mystery of his own be- 
ing, as so made in the beginning. 

"And shall be closely joined unto his wife," united 
in such a way as to avoid even the closest natural ties, 
and to take their place in priority of obligation: so 
close the bond. 

"And they two shall become one flesh," — not "they 
shall be" but "they shall be unto" "they shall become" 

"Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh." 
The effect of their marriage union shall be an in- 



Marriage 131 

separable union into one humanity. So that as in a 
Son all the elements of his being come from the Father 
and the Mother, and the Father and Mother in him are 
inseparable and indiscernible, so mysteriously are the 
husband and the wife united into "one flesh," or "one 
humanity." 

"What God therefore has joined together, let not 
man put asunder." God has united them "in one flesh" 
by the original constitution of their nature as made by 
him, and by his express and positive law in accordance 
with that nature. Therefore, let no human legislation 
separate them. 

And then He shows that only in reference to the 
hardness and brutality of the national heart was the lib- 
erty of divorce politically permitted ; but that originally 
it was not so. 

A lawgiver whose counsels are directed by views of 
general utility, and obstructed by no local impediment, 
would make the marriage contract indissoluble, dur- 
ing the joint lives of the parties, for the sake of the fol- 
lowing advantages : — 

"1. Because this tends to preserve peace and con- 
cord between married persons, by perpetuating their 
common interest, and by inducing a necessity of mu- 
tual compliance. 



132 Christian Science 

"There is great weight and substance in both these 
considerations. An earlier termination of the union 
would produce a separate interest, the wife would 
naturally look forward to the dissolution of the partner- 
ship, and endeavor to draw to herself a fund against 
the time when she was no longer to have access to the 
same resources. This would beget peculation on the 
one side, and mistrust upon the other, evils which at 
present very little disturb the confidence of the mar- 
ried life. 

"The second effect of making the union determin- 
able only by death, is not less beneficial; it necessarily 
happens that adverse tempers, habits, and tastes, often- 
times meet in marriage, in which case each party must 
take pains to give up what offends, and practise what 
may gratify the other. A man and woman in love with 
each other do this insensibly, but love is neither general 
nor durable, and when that is wanting, no lessons of 
duty, no delicacy of sentiment will go half so far with 
the generality of mankind and womankind, as this one 
intelligible reflection, that they must each make the best 
of their bargain ; and that, seeing they must either both 
be miserable or both share in the same happiness, 
neither can find their own comfort but in promoting the 
pleasure of the other. These compliances, though at 



Marriage 133 

first extorted by necessity, become in : time easy, and 
mutual, and although less endearing than assiduities 
which take their rise from affection, generally procure 
to the married pair a repose and satisfaction sufficient 
for their happiness." 

There is a great deal of good sense in these remarks, 
although we see in them the low and mean views Payel 
had of all things. He argues upon men and women 
"united in holy matrimony," as a man would upon a 
pair of oxen united by a yoke, or of dogs in a double 
collar ! "They won't kick or bite, but will learn to run 
quietly together, when they find they can't be 
separated !" 

But, to proceed, he goes on to assign other reasons 
for the permanence of the marriage tie : — 

"Because new objects of desire would be continually 
sought after, if men could, at will", bo released from 
their subsisting engagements. Suppose the husband 
once to have preferred his wife to all other women, the 
duration of this preference cannot be trusted to. There 
is no other security against the invitations of novelty 
than the known impossibility of obtaining the object. 
And, constituted as mankind are, and injured as the 
repudiated wife generally must be, it is necessary to add 
a stability to the condition of married women, more 



134 Christian Science 

secure than the continuance of their husband's affec- 
tion. Upon the whole, the power of divorce is evi- 
dently and greatly to the disadvantage of the woman, 
and the only question, appears to be whether the real 
and permanent happiness of one-half the species should 
be surrendered to the caprice and voluptuousness of 
the other? 

"We have considered divorces as depending upon 
the will of the husband, becausei that is the way in 
which they have actually obtained in many parts of 
the world ; but the same objections apply in a great de- 
gree to divorces by mutual consent, especially when we 
consider the indelicate situation and small prospect of 
happiness which remains to the party who has opposed 
his or her dissent to the liberty and desire of the other. 

"Milton's story is well known. Upon a quarrel with 
his wife, he paid, his addresses to another woman, and 
set forth a public vindication of his conduct, by at- 
tempting to prove that confirmed dislike, was as just 
a foundation for dissolving the marriage contract as 
adultery ; to which position, and to all the arguments 
by which it can be supported, the above considerations 
afford a sufficient* answer." 

And we proceed, ourselves-, ta add a few^ considera- 
tions, of a different spirit,, we hope. We have shown 



Marriage 135 

that man is of three parts, the "body," the "animal 
soul/' and the "spirit ;" of these three is the entire one- 
ness of his nature framed. We have shown that, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, these two human beings be- 
come "one flesh ;" there is an actual union of the na- 
ture of the one unto that of the other ; so that they are 
no more twain, but one flesh. Now, as a preparation 
for this, there ought to be a meetness and suitableness 
of the one for the other. I ask, then, is it not a fact 
that there are masses of men and women in whom the 
Spiritual part is wholly uncultivated, who use not the 
Conscience, who have no Spiritual Reason or sense of 
the Unseen World, but live only for the things of time 
and sense, whose Affections, at least so far as the 
Heart is concerned, are become Sensual and Selfish? 

Every one knows that there are multitudes of such 
men, multitudes of men whose moral faculties are ut- 
erly uncultivated and undeveloped, and whose main 
principle therefore, in life, is either the Sensual one, 
"to live for pleasure," or the Selfish one, "to live for 
acquisition." 

If a man be in such a state, then that man's heart is 
in the state naturally that the hearts of the Hebrews 
were, his heart is hard; hard through Sensuality, and 
hard through Selfishness. 



136 Christian Science 

Say that such a one marries; he marries, not for 
higher objects than his nature reaches to, or for higher 
ends than his Greatest Good will measure. The man 
that marries for beauty, when the beauty is gone, hav- 
ing no higher object, and no loftier feeling than that 
mere sensual admiration of beauty which the ancient 
heathen and Paley call "love," and the Scriptures call 
"desire," or "lust," — why, if this be the object of his 
marriage, why should he be confined to one wife? why 
not more than one? why not the utmost latitude? 
Surely, if this be the highest end and the highest aim, 
the real affections will be neglected and the utmost 
latitude of divorce sought for and desired. 

An old poet beautifully contrasts this with true af- 
fection : 

He that loves a rosie cheeke, 

Or a coral lip admires, 
Or from star-like eyes doth seek 

Fuel to maintain his fires, 
As Old Time maketh these decay, 
So his flames must waste away. 

But a smoothe and steadfast minde, 
Gentle thoughts and calme desires, 



Marriage 137 

Hearts with equal love combined, 

Kindle never-dying fires ; 
When these are not, I do despise 
Lovely cheekes, or lips, or eyes. 

And again, if objects merely Selfish be sought for, 
if the husband want a housekeeper only, and the wife 
only a man who can give "a comfortable home," this 
very thing — this attaching a Selfish end exclusively to 
marriage, this too infers, in reasoning upon it, the ut- 
most latitude of divorce. For if the man's highest end 
is to obtain a good housekeeper only, and this is the 
view he takes of marriage, and he is disappointed, 
naturally he will think he ought to have the liberty 
again to try and suit himself. 

Suppose the end of marriage to be either Selfish or 
Sensual, and that rightly and properly a man can, for 
these motives, and no higher ones, engage in it. And 
then, naturally, there is a craving for unlimited di- 
vorce; then, naturally, the Scripture doctrine is 
changed, and husband and wife are, and should be on 
these grounds, allowed to be separated for every cause. 

Now there are, unquestionably, a vast number of di- 
vorces at the present day. I trace them to these rea- 
sons, — in the first place, to the philosophy of the day, 



138 Christian Science 

which is the Sensual philosophy of John Locke, who as- 
serts that Pleasure and Pain are to be the rules of ac- 
tion, and that Good and Evil are to be measured by 
them : and therefore, so far as in him lay, he has made 
man utterly Sensual and Unspiritual. In the second 
place, to the "Selfish" philosophy of Paley, which 
makes "selfishness regulated by reason" the rule of ac- 
tion, and is very commonly held among us. And in the 
third place, to the absence of a regular and systematic 
cultivation of the Spiritual powers in the mass of our 
people. 

But to continue the subject. As "they two are no 
more twain, but one flesh," it is manifest that the tie 
of Marriage involves the most complete mutualness, if 
we may use the expression. And besides this, marriage 
is a systematic and fixed mode of life, under an ex- 
ternal habitude and law; wherefore the Roman Law 
rightly calls Marriage "omnis vitae consuetudo," "of 
all the life a custom or habitude." 

Let us look at these two facts : — Herein is the nat- 
ural cure for Selfishness; for under the Law of mar- 
riage, by the very constitution of nature, be a man or 
a woman as selfish as they may be originally, another 
"Self" is substituted which the coldest-hearted are com- 
pelled to love, to feel for, to sympathize with. Nay, 



Marriage 139 

such is the nature of this mystery of our constitution, 
that even such persons will feel a high and pure pleas- 
ure in loving that other unselfishly and rendering her 
happy. Even of itself, by its own nature, that is, apart 
from consideration of duty, mutual love and mutual af- 
fection is the law of marriage ; and he that can, in ref- 
erence to his wife, remain "Selfish," and escape from 
the mutualness of affection that is natural to this so- 
ciety, must be hardened indeed. In all ordinary cases, 
it is a natural cure and remedy of "Selfishness," to a 
certain and indeed a very great degree. 

But with regard to "Sensuality," also, the tendency 
that is to make mere pleasure the object of life, here too 
exists a natural and efficient preservation against this, 
in Marriage. It takes an individual apart from the 
world — it opens up to him a new life and new enjoy- 
ments. It shows him, as it were, a sphere of uncloying 
pleasures in the domestic society of his home and his 
fireside. A whole new world, as it were, in the present 
and in the future, is unsealed to him ; and this world is 
his, fenced in and shut from external intrusion by the 
Home. 

Home and its chaste pleasures and secure happiness 
preserve multitudes. For because of the mutualness 
of marriage in all happiness and in all joys, as well as 



140 Christian Science 

in all sorrows, it is the most complete cure there is 
naturally for that defect of the Heart that consists in 
our tendency to make mere pleasure the object of our 
life; which tendency we have called "Sensuality," or 
the inclination to pursue, as the main object, the pleas- 
ures of "Sense." 

And, as we have before remarked, the living after a 
certain habitude and way of life, dependent not wholly 
upon our own Will, but upon a multitude of other cir- 
cumstances and laws which all spring from the words 
"Marriage," "Family," and "Home;" this, in most 
men, is a very strong corrective of "Self-will," or "Un- 
controlledness." 

So that by the constitution of the relation, the mar- 
riage state, in consequence of its mutualness, or identi- 
fication, is, if we may so say, a sort of "Natural Grace," 
or help that God has given us if we will improve it, 
against the three effects of "Original sin" upon the Af- 
fections or the Heart. I do not say a perfect or a com- 
plete remedy, but still one that is an aid more or less. 

And from this, if we were asked what are those 
things that will the most destroy the happiness of mar- 
ried life, and turn the most its felicity into sorrow, we 
say these three — "Selfishness," "Sensuality," "Self- 
will." They are incongruous to its very nature, unsuit- 



Marriage T41 

able in every way, efements, which, however evil they 
are elsewhere, here become tenfold more poisonous, 
tenfold more destructive, — being, to those united in 
marriage, the very elements and fountains of misery 
and wretchedness, as being in eheir very nature an- 
tagonist to that Mutualness or complete reciprocal iden- 
tification of all pleasures, interests, affections, between 
persons united in marriage, which results from its very 
nature, and may well be counted the second law of 
marriage. 

And they that would be happy, let them keep these 
evils away; let them ever avoid them, and instead of 
thinking of "Self" in any way, of will, of pleasure, or 
possession, let them think of that other "Self" whom 
God has given them. And of all possessions, all pleas- 
ures, all the objects of life, let them make that other 
Self the end. So, by these simple precautions, shall 
much sorrow be avoided, and much happiness secured. 

I do not deny but that many are able to hide pure 
Selfishness under an appearance of carefulness for their 
families, and even at the time that they appear the best 
to the world, are most entirely Selfish. I will admit 
also, that some men are so entirely Sensual as to look 
upon their Home as a mere means of systematic Epi- 
curean comfort. Nay, such men will secretly calculate 



142 Christian Science 

to hide this, and to escape. But of the Un-house-like 
affections, for such are these, then the Family is the 
true avenger. Children detect these secret feelings of 
the Heart. They see, with a subtlety of discernment 
few imagine them to possess, whether a father or 
mother is Selfish, or Self-willed, or Sensual. They 
pierce through the veils and wrappings whereby these 
faults are hidden from the outer world. They discern 
the pretence of that which is claimed, but does not exist, 
the unreality of that which appears. And thus they are 
driven to believe that these are real principles of action, 
and they act upon them. Thus, Selfishness in the par- 
ent, especially when disguised, begets Selfishness in the 
child; so with Sensuality, and so with Self-will. The 
natural punishment of these offences in parents against 
the law of the Family, is the same in their children 
against themselves. Their vengeance is from evil and 
rebellious children. We do not say that this is always 
so, for there are many cases in which the good are af- 
flicted in this way. But we will say, that of these things 
in the family, this is the natural result. And this we 
say, that one of the wisest men we have known, re- 
marked to us that in this way he had seen the Selfish 
oftenest punished, — in their families. 

The basis, it has been seen, and foundation of mar- 



Marriage 143 

riage is laid upon the mystery, in us, of our nature, — 
and externally to us, upon the law of God correspond- 
ing unto that msterious constitution of our being. 

The qualifications for it are the adequate and equal 
perfection, by training and education, of all the parts of 
the nature, the Spiritual, the Mental, the Physical. 

This synopsis we have here given ©f the preceding 
contents of this chapter, that our reader may see the 
whole matter summed up clearly and distinctly before 
we enter upon other parts of the subject, of which we 
are to speak less certainly. 

The first question is this : "Upon what motive, and 
upon what inducement, is a man or woman to marry?'' 
Upon this we say, that the completeness and mutual- 
ness of the union will enable us to decide. The very 
basis of marriage is "that they two are henceforth no 
more twain, but one flesh." Should there not then be 
such an agreement of affections, such a mutual love, 
that the one would give up for the other all things, as 
it were, and make the happiness of the other the main 
object and end in life ? 

Certainly it seems by the very fact that they two are 
henceforth to be one, that no other motive or induce- 
ment should be sufficient but that of affection and love. 

And this furthermore will be confirmed by the con- 



144 Christian Science 

elusion before educed, that "Selfishness," and "Sensu- 
ality," and "Self-will," all of these are the most destruc- 
tive of marriage happiness, and, therefore, naturally 
before marriage are as motives to be excluded; this, 
therefore, I say, is, or ought to be, the measure of the 
affection upon which, as the highest and purest motive, 
one may found his desire for marriage and his best pros- 
pect of happiness in it; affection that shall be entirely 
unselfish, — that shall be unsensual, seeking mainly the 
happiness of the other instead of its own, — and study 
and determine it, free from caprice and self-will. 

If a man or a woman feel in themselves such an af- 
fection, and measure it thus, they may be assured that 
this is "Love," such love as is the highest and best quali- 
fication for happiness, and the highest and best motive 
for engaging in marriage. 

At the same time, I do not deny that there may be a 
multitude of other subordinate inducements upon which 
it is morally right to found our motives for marriage ; 
but in all cases, whatsoever else there be, there must be 
Affection as the great and leading motive, and, if not, 
there will afterwards be much unhappiness. 

External circumstances, therefore, such as the natural 
taste for female society, the desire of companionship, 
the inability to manage the cares of a household, or in 



Marriage 145 

fact any external circumstances not "selfish" and not 
"sensual," may induce man or woman to wish for mar- 
riage, and to move towards it. And these may be, and 
are undoubtedly lawful and permissible motives, pro- 
vided there be real and sincere Affection. 

Another, and a most important part of the marriage 
relation, is the relative position of Husband and Wife 
as regards control. 

Now, manifestly, if marriage be merely a "Civil Con- 
tract," this shall be regulated in the way that the same 
question is managed in other "civil contracts" or "co- 
partnerships," — the one that is able to lead shall lead, 
and the one that is not able to lead shall obey, in all 
things that by the contract are common ; and in all other 
things, each one shall manage in his own way. This 
must be the case under the Roman notion of "two per- 
sons;" "Person" being not merely an individual, but 
one who has all legal rights of holding property, suing 
and being sued, &c. Now between two "persons" in 
this sense entering upon "a Civil Contract," the idea, it 
seems to me, of Obedience is very foolish — these no- 
tions exclude it altogether. The proper idea herein, that 
is, the idea appropriate to these notions of Roman Law 
or Heathen Wisdom, is this : "I enter into a contract 
with you ; I fulfill my part — do you fulfill yours ; we are 



146 Christian Science 

two persons still — and compliance with the terms of con- 
tract, this is all ; fulfillment of the contract is all that is 
requisite, and Obedience is quite a different matter." 

But the Common Law and the Scriptures, that teach 
that husband and wife are "One Person," and to be "no 
more twain, but one flesh," resting as they both do upon 
the doctrine of a mysterious union, — they imply by these 
very doctrines that one must govern and one obey. 
They send them not to a civil contract, to examine and 
decide upon their mutual rights — they set them not up 
as different "persons," to have a diversity of interest : 
they say, "You are one person and one interest, and one 
must lead and govern by your very position, and one be 
governed." 

Hence the Scriptures are very plain and manifest in 
their directions to both husbands and wives in this re- 
spect : "Wives, be obedient unto your husbands," "The 
husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the 
head of the church," and so forth. 

And this decision, inferior as it may seem in wisdom 
to the other, yet shall be seen and felt to be ultimately 
the wisest ; for differences of opinion are very likely to 
exist, and either they must be decided judicially, by one 
out of the society, or else one must yield. The first is 
the Roman notion; the second, the Christian doctrine. 



Marriage 147 

And every one knows how much a separation of in- 
terests, a debating upon them, a bringing in of a per- 
son extraneous as a judge and arbiter, tends to render 
irreconcilable the disputes and dissensions of mar- 
riage. Every one also knows how easily husbands 
and wives, under the influence of love and mutual re- 
spect, can yield the one to the other. And they who 
look at the different spheres of action which Husband 
and Wife fill in unity of life, and consider that the 
connection is not between two men or two women, 
but between two of different sexes, upon the whole na- 
ture of which the difference is imprinted, and this dif- 
ference in nature manifestly tending unto unity of ac- 
tion, shall see that to two natures so adapted unto 
unity, occasions of disagreement shall be infinitely 
few, compared to what they would be in those of the 
same sex. The occasions then of complete and entire 
unity of action shall be with them innumerable — the 
occasions of dispute very few indeed. And the hus- 
band shall maintain his natural position of love to- 
wards his wife, and the wife her natural respect 
towards her husband, and in these be, through mu- 
tual and sincere love, entirely and completely happy. 



THE HUMAN WILL 

CHAPTER VII. 

If man were a beast as the beasts are, without any 
Spiritual Nature, and therefore without the Will, and 
completely under the dominion of external things, — 
he would feel no misery because of this, being a brute ; 
if he had the faculty of Will perfect in itself and in 
its action, then would he have under his dominion 
completely that external desire, and he would be 
happy. But now he has times overcoming, sometimes 
being overcome: — there is then by nature in him a 
strife in his nature, which is in his very being, and ex- 
ists in its existence, and cannot be stopped or put an 
end to by any thing save that which will restore the 
Will unto its whole power. 

That strife is in all men by nature; — all have felt 
it, and all must feel it, for it is in their being. Xeno- 
phon, before the coming of Christ, testifies to the ex- 
istence of that strife. Seneca, too, a Heathen, in his 
fiftv-second Epistle, testifies the same thing: What 
is this, Lucilius, which, while we are going one way, 

148 



The Human Will 149 

drags us another, and impels us thither from whence 
we are struggling to recede ? What is this that strug- 
gles with our soul, and never permits us to will any 
thing? We vacillate between two opinions: we will 
nothing freely, nothing perfectly, nothing always/' 
Again, the trite lines: 

Video meliora proboque 
Deteriora sequor, 

bear witness to the same feeling and the same experi- 
ence. And Lactantius, in his treatise upon true wis- 
dom, has put into the mouth of a Heathen these 
words: "I wish, indeed, not to sin; but I am over- 
come, for I am clothed in weak and frail flesh.. This 
it is which lusts, which grows angry, which grieves, 
which fears to die. And so I am led away against 
my will, and I sin, not because I wish to do so, but 
because I am compelled. I feel that I am sinning, but 
my frailty, which I cannot withstand, urges me on." 
These testimonies to the actual existence of that in- 
ternal strife, as a fact of man's nature, are sufficient; 
but, indeed, they might be multiplied a hundredfold; 
for that this exists in man by nature, as fallen and 
apart from grace, is the universal experience of all, 
both of Heathens, who, by their position, knew not the 



150 Christian Science 

cause of it, and of Christians, who, by revelation, are 
acquainted with the fact of the Fall. 

But perhaps the most vivid description that is given 
of man in respect to this internal strife of Will, is given 
by St. Paul, in his description of the natural man : 

"For we know that the law is Spiritual: but I am 
carnal; sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow 
not : for what I would, that I do not ; but what I hate, 
that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I con- 
sent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no 
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I 
know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no 
good thing: for to will is present with me; but how 
to perform that which is good I find not. For the 
good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I 
would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, 
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is 
present with me. For I delight in the law of God 
after the inward man: but I see another law in my 
members, warring against the law of my mind, and 
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is 
in my members." 

Here is the experience of all men's nature, of this 
inward strife, most vividly portrayed; a strife that 



The Human Will 151 

has no end until, of set purpose and constantly, the 
man has sought after the law of God's Grace, and 
found it, and given himself up to be ruled by it, through 
the set purpose of his will — or until he, with his eyes 
open, voluntarily, and of set purpose, has given him- 
self up to be ruled by this other law, the will that is 
of the flesh, and its law, the law of sin and death. 

We can see then the deficiency of the Will, that, 
being in us an internal and spiritual faculty, the fac- 
ulty of freedom, it participates, through Original Sin, 
of the deficiency and inability of the rest of our na- 
ture; and of itself it is unable, weak, deficient, both 
in its power and in its results. 

Hence, when it is utterly apart from all Divine in- 
fluences — a situation in which we cannot believe the 
ever-blessed God has left any of our race — the man 
would be the most miserable of all beings, — knowing, 
willing, desiring, feeling the duty of resistance to 
temptation, and yet being the absolute and utter slave 
of circumstances and appetite. This would man be of 
his nature, apart from all Divine influences, in conse- 
quence of the infirmity of his Will, its inability to re- 
sist external impressions, and the influence of external 
motives on it. 

But, as we have shown that Society is a school for 



152 Christian Science 

the other spiritual parts of man, so is it a very strong 
discipline for this. And, indeed, if a man will look at 
the course of events through which he has passed in 
this life, — that is to say, the effects of God's provi- 
dence upon him, — each one, in his own course, shall 
hardly miss to say, that the schooling of the Almighty, 
which is so strong an exercise and trial to the rest of 
our Moral Nature, in no small degree tends to develop 
the powers of the Will, in all men that are teachable 
by circumstance and the course of events. So far are 
none apart from influences that come from God, and 
directly tend to strengthen the Will and give it control 
over the mere power of Desire and Appetite. 

Taking into account, then, and allowing it as a 
fact, that there is this external education of the Will 
in various degrees conferred upon men by God, — set- 
ting, I say, this case aside, as mainly beyond our ex- 
amination and our powers of explanation, let us come 
to the consideration of the Freedom de facto of the 
Will, or of that which enables it to control the Will 
of the Flesh. 

And here I think that we shall find that the motives 
which free the Will are, of its own nature, inward and 
Spiritual, not Animal; and that that man whose Will 
is so guided, he shall have the power of resistance to 



The Human Will 153 

enslaving circumstance in a degree greater or less, 
just in proportion as his Will is so actuated. 

The Will is like the other Spiritual faculties: it is 
not a law to itself; it seeks not its perfection in itself, 
but by an influence from without is it perfected. 

And if a man, the most having the control over him- 
self, — if he looks at it clearly, he shall find that to be 
steadily under the Law of Conscience, this gives free- 
dom, — this sets a man apart from the enslaving in- 
fluence of external things. It tells the man — "Thou 
art no slave to gold ; for, under the law of Conscience, 
the Will so actuated can resist all amount of treasure 
rather than do evil, rather than break through the 
checks of the conscience, rather than incur the Stain 
and the Guilt written down by it, or bear its Fear and 
Shame.' , Conscience, in its action upon the Will, 
sets a man free from a multitude of evils, from the 
strength of a multitude of appetites and lusts. 

It avails not that men, with vain babble and idle 
logic, say, "Then you are not free, for you are gov- 
erned." Certainly, governed; but, as certainly, by an 
inward power, which is my own highest and loftiest 
faculty. And, as certainly, by this freed from the 
heavy dominion of external circumstances and the 
hard and unhealthy rule of the lower parts of nature. 



154 Christian Science 

Certainly free, — for when, under the sway of Con- 
science, the Will is determined by it, then it is deter- 
mined by the highest and most perfect faculty of my 
nature. And, according to a similar harmony, the 
rule, that is, of His Infinite Perfections, is God's Will 
determined. And therefore, as He being Infinite, is 
free, so am I, in like proportion, free, according to my 
finite nature. So that in vain shall men, with verbal 
quibbling, argue, "that since the Will is determined by 
the Conscience, then it is not free;" — seeing that men 
whose will is determined by appetite, knozv and feel 
that then the Will is certainly not free. And most 
certainly do we and all men know by experience, and 
feel, that determined and ruled by the conscience it is 
then free, and enables the man to resist all enslaving 
circumstances. 

We come now to the third prerogative of the Will, 
that of Power ; a very difficult question, we admit, but 
still, one that may be made, we believe, sufficiently 
plain, if first we clear away the thorns and brambles 
of pertinacious and self-centered controversy; the 
arguments of men who uphold various modifications 
of the fatalistic system, under the idea that such a 
scheme is absolutely necessary for religion, and the 
counter arguments of others, who cared nothing for 



The Human Will 155 

truth, but only wished to be free from restraint. Such, 
we think, are, on either side, the arguments that have 
perplexed, not decided, this question. 

Strange arguments! of which the one side proves, 
that man has no power, can do absolutely nothing ! and 
the other, that he can do anything he pleases! is ab- 
solutely omnipotent! — and both unite in relying upon 
abstract and verbal argument, and agree in consider- 
ing human nature and man's experience as generally 
delusive ! We put these argumentations aside, and go 
straight to the question, "Is there Power in the Will 
of Man?" 

Now, we have shown the vainness of the argument, 
with reference to "Cause and Effect," upon Choice 
and Liberty; manifesting in reference to that power 
of the Will, that while the Physical World of the mere 
animals is bound up in a causal system, which, from 
without, predetermines their choice, — man, because he 
is a spiritual being, is free. And that this freedom 
consists in this, that, as a spiritual being, man has the 
power of resisting or admitting the motives which, so 
far as he is merely an animal, would absolutely deter- 
mine his Will. Again, the Power of Purpose, which 
We have treated of in the last chapter, may be seen 
to belong to man peculiarly as a spiritual being, inas- 



156 Christian Science 

much as no animal has Purpose. This, too, will set 
man apart from "the great external system of Physical 
Causation." 

In the same manner, by self-experience, we know, 
that we, under certain conditions, exert Power, which 
originates from ourselves, and is not under a physical 
law of causation in its origin, or an absolute law of 
doom in its operation; both of which theories leave to 
man only an appearance of doing, and a self-delusion 
by which he vainly imagines he does that which he 
only seems to do. And both theories employ as their 
argument the Law of Causation, the assertion that 
the system of the world is driven by it, and that man 
is a mere part of that system or machine. A mechan- 
ical system of the universe, in other words, that as- 
serts, that in His world, God does nothing, and is 
absent himself, and that the only thing present is 
Power exerted according to fixed lazv. 

These three theories, viz. : first, of a Mechanical 
System of the universe; secondly, of an Absent God; 
and, thirdly, of Mere Power; these are the premises 
that deny the Freedom of the Will, whatever talk men 
may make about other matters and other motives. 
Get men to believe in a Present God, a Father, a 
Governor, a holy God, to be worshiped and loved, 



The Human Will 157 

"upholding all things by the Word of his power/' 
"in whom we live and move and have our being," and 
the fatalistic arguments soon vanish. And then there 
is no difficulty in admitting of Free-will or free Power 
in man. 

No greater, no more glorious sight has Christianity 
ever seen than the great Augustine, bowing before the 
throne of God, and under these convictions crying out, 
"Not myself, but thee, O my God — not my power, but 
thine, O Infinite and Eternal Father — not my merit, 
but thy death and thy love by me undeserved, O Eter- 
nal Son, the Word Incarnate — not my ability, or my 
purity, or my merit, but thy Grace, Almighty Spirit; 
proceeding from the Father, endued them with his 
omnipotence ; sent by the Son, conveying then his love 
and his pardon — not myself, then, the creature of clay 
and the dust, but thee, O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost 
— Creator, Saviour, and sole Sanctifier of Man!" 



GENERAL CONCLUDING REMARKS 

CHAPTER VIII. 

We have now brought our work to a conclusion. 
The affections we have treated upon in this book. The 
Affections in the Nation, — this we might have dis- 
cussed in another book, but it would have made the 
volume too large. And Law in the Nation is to one 
part of Ethics what Religion in the Church is to 
another division of the same science, the completion 
of it; Law is the objective and external science, which 
is the completion of the Ethical discussion: the sum, 
therefore of that which we would have said would 
have been these two practical precepts: "Obey the 
Law at all risks, and in every way uphold it and sup- 
port it, and give it in the State the supremacy over all 
Self-will. ,, And secondly, "Do your best that it may 
come as near the Eternal Law of the Almighty, that 
which is written upon Man's heart internally, and 
manifested by God externally, as may be," — these two 
and their reasons in man's nature and position, would 
have afforded a wide field. We give the precepts, and 

158 



General Concluding Remarks 159 

omit the Ethical illustrations and development, for 
the reasons above given. 

The Affections in the Church, — this we have also 
omitted, for a reason very plain indeed; it leads us 
directly into the discussion of "Spiritual Ethics," or 
of "Practical Christianity," that is, of the Ethics that 
ensues from the peculiar position of Human Nature 
in Covenant with God. The Ethics of a human being 
endued with this high privilege, placed in this lofty 
position, while manifestly it is not opposite to that of 
the man who is of Nature only, not of Grace ; has only 
the capabilities, instead of the gifts, but is the crown- 
ing and completion of it, — is still something infinitely 
higher and infinitely more perfect. As the stately 
palm in the desert, crowned with its diadem of leaves 
at once, and flowers and fruit, is to the date borne in 
the hand of the wandering Arab, so is the true Science 
of the Christian Life to the loftiest and truest philoso- 
phy of Nature apart from Grace. In both cases, it 
is true, the germ exists the same, but in the latter the 
influences are wanting that shall develop it. 

That germ in the case of the natural man, the Spirit- 
ual Nature that is in him existing, which renders him 
capable of Grace, I have in this book treated of. 
Spiritual Ethics, the Ethics of Man in Covenant with 



160 Christian Science 

God, is a distinct and higher part of the same science, 
and is practical Christianity. At some future time in 
the ripeness of maturer years, and by the light of 
fuller knowledge, I may enter upon the examination of 
this loftier science. 

In the mean time I would say, upon these elements, 
in this book developed, even this depends: just as the 
highest Astronomy takes for granted the humbler 
science of elementary Geometry, — so the highest 
Christian philosophy is founded upon these doctrines 
of Man's Nature, — these that bring forth and mani- 
fest its adaptedness to all external influences, to So- 
ciety, to the system of God's Providence, and of his 
Creation, and through all these means to the Infinite 
and Eternal God himself! And the religion that 
denies or falsifies these truths may, by adventitious 
circumstances, remain for a time, but it is about to 
perish and be taken away. The true doctrines of the 
Internal Nature of Man and of his Position are the 
very elements of all practical religion, even of the 
loftiest. 

I must now, in all justice to my reader, tell him that 
the system I have here laid before him is not a system 
of my own, invented by myself, but that it is the Eth- 
ical Science of the first Christians, as far as I have 



General Concluding Remarks 161 



i £> 



been able to distinguish and feel it. This I have, as 
it were, translated into the thought of our age and 
time, out of the thought of men of different ages and 
different times. That is, I have attempted to present, 
in a scientific form, as a system, before the ordinary 
reader, the Ethics of Christianity, as held by the church 
unbroken, before the ambition of Rome and the prag- 
matical spirit of Constantinople had rent the church in 
two. For much as men may have forgotten the idea, 
there was a time, and that time lasted for ten cen- 
turies, when the church was one. This Ethics of the 
church undivided, I have then attempted to present to 
the men of this age and this time. 

I have not said all I could say upon each point, only 
that which I counted enough to convince, and there- 
fore the reader or teacher will often find a multitude 
of confirmatory arguments and facts capable of being 
adduced, which I have not adduced. To the teacher, 
this will be a good exercise of teaching, — to the reader, 
of thought. But I have been forced to omit a multi- 
tude of such things, even thoughts and facts that were 
to me most delightful, and which I was convinced 
would be to the reader very interesting. The nature 
of the science as "Subjective," resting for a good part 



1 62 Christian Scieitcc 

of its proof upon the self-experience of the man and 
of the race, will sufficiently account for this. 

I would now, as respects my readers, address to 
them a few words in reference to the book and its re- 
sults upon them. If the reader who has gone thus far 
is contented with it, thinks that it gives a sufficient and 
satisfactory account of Human Nature, its problems, 
and their solution, in the first place / claim from him 
no praise, personally, in this book. I profess to present 
the Ethics of the Ancient Church. Augustine, Atha- 
nasius, Cyril, Cyprian, Origen, Tertullian, these men 
whom every puny writer of the present day thinks 
himself privileged to scorn at, — these are the sources 
from which I have obtained the principles here pre- 
sented in a connected form, — men who, often by the 
meditation of a whole life of holiness and self-denial, 
thought out and established for ever the Christian 
solution of a single one of the problems of nature 
herein discussed! These results the theologian will 
often discern in these pages, given in a few lines, while, 
in the original, volumes hardly embrace their discus- 
sion. For myself, therefore, I claim no praise of 
originality or of genius ; but that one, of bringing again 
before the world, in a shape to every one tangible, the 



General Concluding Remarks 163 

Ethical Science of Apostolic Christianity, undivided 
and at unity with itself. 

So far, with regard to myself, I have said to him, 
who has thus far read the treatise, with satisfaction; 
now, with regard to himself, I say, if he be convinced 
of the truth of these principles, let him not for a mo- 
ment abide in a barren philosophy, but act upon the 
principles herein laid down. Let him begin to culti- 
vate his Spiritual Inward Nature at all risks, and un- 
der all pain and loss to make it the ruling and supreme 
governor of his action, — it as perfected and aided by 
the external influences, through which alone it can be 
complete in its functions and in its action. This he 
must do, if he would draw the proper advantage from 
this book; and the book itself in its several parts, I 
believe, will be found to contain directions for this 
mode of action. So far with regard to moral Self- 
cultivation. 

And if, with regard to himself, he has found these 
principles of the Science of ancient Christianity effi- 
cient, I would most vehemently urge upon him to ex- 
emplify them in the family, the Home wherein, by 
God's decree, he has been placed, not to live as an 
unit, an individual, but as part of a divinely appointed 
institution. In the Home then, I would urge the 



164 Christian Science 

Father, the Mother, the Sister, the Brother, to live up 
to and distinctly to exemplify the principles herein 
laid down ; for, too much has it been forgotten, that the 
Home is, for those within it, a sphere peculiar and 
exclusive, wherein there is for its members a peculiar 
religious and moral work to do, which there can be 
done and nowhere else, by them and by no one else. 
There is moral teaching, "with which no man med- 
dleth," as well as sorrow and joy, exclusive of those 
that are without. 

But, moreover, I would urge the person who has read 
this attempt toward a Christian Science, and approves 
of it for himself and for his family, to put it into the 
hand of the growing and intelligent youth with whom 
he is acquainted. The experience of the writer tells 
him, that for those especially who, in childhood and 
youth, have been neglected by parents, untrained in the 
holy teachings of the gospel, there is a period wherein 
all the problems "of our nature and of our position" 
rush up and demand a solution; and the youth then is 
in great doubt ; his nature demands a true answer ; and, 
alas ! so false is the ordinary Ethics' of Christianity, that 
but seldom that true answer is given. Hence are multi- 
tudes in our land Non-professors, for the want of a true 
Christian philosophy of man's Nature and his Position. 



General Concluding Remarks 165 

This the author has tried to give, not as his own, but as 
that of the old Christian church. If the reader, then, 
clerical or lay, finds that, even in a degree, this 
book answers that want, the author would ask of him, 
whithersoever this book may wander, to bring it into 
the hands of thoughtful and serious youth, who are in 
that crisis of life alluded to. 

And, with this remark, the author will bid his reader 
God speed. He has now come to the end of a laborious 
work, which he felt to be needed. He has worked upon 
it sincerely and ardently, for he knew of no book em- 
bracing the subjects treated upon herein, so as to be 
accessible to the mass of readers, and at the same time 
pleasing to them. How he has succeeded time will tell ; 
but if the reader feels that the author has so far suc- 
ceeded as to supply, even in a small degree, the great 
want of a book upon these subjects, the author would 
ask of him, not to let the book rest upon his shelves, but 
to bring it before the notice of those to whom it is likely 
to be of service. 

And, if the author has not succeeded, at least, he has 
attempted that which must one day or other be done, — 
the answering truly, according to the sentiment of the 
Ancient Church, the problems that arise in the mind of 
all men born upon the earth. He has felt that one great 



1 66 Christian Science 

want of Christianity, at this day, is the want of a true 
Christian Ethics, and in his measure, according to his 
ability, has done his best to supply it. And if he have 
not succeeded, still to have felt the want, to have known 
wherefrom it could be supplied, and to have laboured 
towards that end sincerely, is enough. 

But he has better hopes, that this his book will be 
found to give true answers to the questions, according 
to the plan proposed, to remove the difficulties that have 
hitherto kept away multitudes from Christianity, to 
satisfy objections, and to hold up the clear light of 
Christian philosophy upon the dark and dubious prob- 
lems which so perplex, in this day, all men, and especially 
the young. 

And this if he have done in one case, — if he have 
cleared the path of one from the obstructions that a 
Heathen Philosophy places in the way of men "who 
would enter in," — if he thus, from the way of one in- 
dividual, has been efficient to remove "an offence," the 
author has faith to believe, that in the final account he 
shall not be without his due reward. With this hope he 
bids his reader God speed. 

THE END. 



Extracts from 

Science and Health 

Bv MARY BAKER G. EDDY 



COMPARISONS 

I trust the reader has a clear comprehension of what 
Mr. Adams considered a practical and rational treatise 
on Christian Science, but before proceeding with Mrs. 
Eddy's denials of the physical body, pain, matter and 
sensation we will ask the reader to turn back to page 
104 and freshen his mind concerning the importance 
of a thorough knowledge of what Mrs. Eddy claims 
is a myth or imagination and that she has been blessed 
with a Revelation that there is nothing to anything. 

Note. — The following extracts are taken from 1909 
Edition of Science and Health. 

Page 108. Whence came to me this heavenly con- 
viction, — a conviction antagonistic to the testimony of 
the physical senses? According to St. Paul, it was 
'the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the 
effectual working of His power.' It was the divine 
law of Life and Love, unfolding to me the demon- 
strable fact that matter possesses neither sensation nor 
life; that human experiences show the falsity of all 
material things ; and that immortal cravings, "the price 

169 



170 Comparative Christian Science 

of learning love," establish the truism that the only 
sufferer is mortal mind. 

Page 113. The divine metaphysics of Christian 
Science, like the method in mathematics, proves the 
rule by inversion. For example : There is no pain in 
truth, and no truth in pain ; no nerve in Mind, and no 
mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in 
matter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no 
matter in good, and no good in matter. 

Page 114. Mortal mind is a solecism in language 
and involves an improper use of the word mind. 
Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men- 
tal, not physical. Science shows that what is termed 
matter is but the subjective state of what is termed by 
the author mortal mind. 

Page 127. Christian Science teaches that matter 
is the falsity, not the fact, of existence; that nerves, 
brain, stomach, lungs, and so forth, have — as matter — 
no intelligence, life nor sensation. There is no phys- 
ical science, inasmuch as all truth proceeds from the 
divine Mind. Therefore truth is not human, and is 
not a law of matter, for matter is not a law giver. 
Christian Science eschews what is called natural 
science, in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses 
that matter is its own law giver. 



Comparative Christian Science 171 

Small Pox, Page 153. We have small pox be- 
cause others have it, but mortal mind, not matter, con- 
tains and carries the infection. You say a boil is pain- 
ful ; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is 
not painful, the boil simply manifests, through inflam- 
mation and swelling, a belief in pain, and this belief is 
called a boil. 

Page 159. The medical schools would learn the 
state of man from matter instead of from Mind. They 
examine the lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how 
much harmony, or health, matter is permitting to 
matter, how much pain or pleasure, action or stagna- 
tion, one form of matter is allowing another form of 
matter. Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief pro- 
duces disease and all its symptoms, the ordinary 
physician is liable to increase disease with his own 
mind, when he should address himself to the work of 
destroying it through the power of the divine Mind. 

Page 161. The ordinary practitioner, examining 
bodily symptoms, telling the patient that he is sick, 
and treating the case according to his physical diag- 
nosis, would naturally induce the very disease he is 
trying to cure, even if it were not already determined 
by mortal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would 
not occur, if this old class of philanthropists looked as 



172 Comparative Christian Science 

deeply for cause and effect into mind as into matter. 
The physician agrees with his 'adversary quickly/ but 
upon different terms than does the metaphysician; for 
the matter physician agrees with disease, while the 
metaphysician agrees only with health and challenges 
disease. 

Page 172. What is man? Brain, heart, blood, 
bones, etc., the material structure. If the real man is 
in the material body, you take away a portion of the 
man when you amputate a limb ; the surgeons destroy 
manhood, and worms annihilate it. 

Note. — We have refrained from making any com- 
ments on these wise and inspired (?) sayings of Mrs. 
Eddy, but cannot resist expressing our views regard- 
ing the last illustration. When we speak of manhood 
we have reference to a man's character, which is gov- 
erned by his brain; we have never before understood 
that any part of a man's brains were in his feet or legs. 
Many men have lost their limbs without losing their 
manhood. 



MUST WE BE UNCLEAN AND IGNORE 
HYGIENE AND KNOWLEDGE TO MAKE A 
GOOD SCIENTIST? 

Page 174. Is civilization only a higher form of 
idolatry, that man should bow down to a flesh brush, 
to flannels, to baths, diet, exercise and air? 

Page 382-3. If half the attention given to hygiene 
were given to the study of Christian Science and to 
the spiritualization of thought, this alone would usher 
in the millennium. Constant bathing and rubbing to 
alter the secretions or to remove unhealthy exhalations 
from the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Jesus' 
precept, "Take no thought * * * for the body." 
He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, 
is more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in 
one God, than is the devotee of supposed hygienic law, 
who comes to teach the so-called ignorant one. Must 
we not then consider the so-called law of matter a 
canon "more honored in the breach than the observ- 
ance?" The Christian Scientist takes the best care 
of his body when he leaves it most out of his thought. 
A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth 
does not affect his happiness, because mind and body 
rest on the same basis. 

173 



174 Comparative Christian Science 

Page 179. Every medical method has its advocates, 
the preference of mortal mind for a certain method 
creates a demand for that method, and the body then 
seems to require such treatment. You can even edu- 
cate a healthy horse so far in physiology that he will 
take cold without his blanket. 

Treaties on anatomy, physiology, and health, sus- 
tained by what is termed material law, are the pro- 
moters of sickness and disease. It should not be 
proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you 
will be sick. The sedulous matron — studying her Jahr 
with homeopathic pellet and powder in hand, ready to 
put you into a sweat, to move the bowels, or to produce 
sleep — is unwittingly sowing the seed of reliance on 
matter, and her household may ere long reap the effect 
of this mistake. 

Page 184. The so-called laws of health are simply 
laws of mortal belief. The premises being erroneous, 
the conclusions are wrong. Truth makes no laws to 
regulate sickness, sin, and death, for these are un- 
known to Truth and should not be recognized as 
reality. 

We say man suffers from the effects of cold, heat, 
fatigue. This is human belief, not the truth of being, 
for matter cannot suffer. Mortal mind alone suffers, 



Comparative Christian Science 175 

not because a law of matter has been transgressed, but 
because a law of this so-called mind has been dis- 
obeyed. 

Page 188-9. What is termed disease does not exist. 
It is neither mind nor matter. The belief of sin, which 
has grown terrible in strength and influence, is an un- 
conscious error in the beginning, — an embryonic 
thought without motive; but after it governs the 
so-called man. Passion, depraved appetites, dishon- 
esty, envy, hatred, revenge ripen into action only to 
pass from shame and woe to their final punishment. 

Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in 
matter, a dream of sin, sickness and death; and it is 
like! the dream we have in sleep, in which every one 
recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of mind. 

In both the waking and the sleeping dream, the 
•dreamer thinks that his body is material and the suffer- 
ing is in the body. 

ANALYZE AND CONTEMPLATE. 

(We will pause a moment and let the reader digest 
this profound Science (?) so wonderfully elucidated by 
an inspired mind. ) 

Think of advocating ignorance in all laws pertain- 
ing to Cleanliness and Hygiene, and making light of 



176 Comparative Christian Science 

the free use of Pure Water, Fresh Air, Exercise, 
Healthful Food and the proper care of the Human 
Body. 

No wonder Mrs. Eddy exclaims "Whence came to 
me this heavenly conviction." An attempt to blot out 
the highest elements of civilization, surely looks like a 
divine revelation, of which Mrs. Eddy is constantly 
claiming. We have always been taught that "Cleanli- 
ness is next to Godliness." "And many false prophets 
shall rise and shall deceive many." 

I think this last quotation very applicable, and should 
satisfy the minds of those who say that they cannot 
comprehend Mrs. Eddy's writings. 

No one has ever been able to comprehend them, even 
Rev. J. H. Wiggin, who spent three years correcting 
Mrs. Eddy's writings, claimed that he could not com- 
prehend much of the work, and in fact when he would 
ask Mrs. Eddy to explain what she was trying to con- 
vey to the mind of the reader, she would turn it off by 
saying the reader could take it in different ways. It is 
sufficient to state that Rev. Mr. Wiggin was far from 
being a Christian Scientist after going over the work 
for three years, correcting and arranging it for the 
printer. How could you expect a man of education, 



Comparative Christian Science 177 

and sound mind to accept a theory absolutely devoid 
of reason and good common sense ? 

Had Mr. Wiggin been susceptible to hypnotism he 
too might have believed in the insane assertions that 
there is no such thing as sin, sickness and death; and 
that heat or cold cannot effect the human body, if you 
can — just forget it. "In fact there is no human body, 
we think we have a body but it is all Mortal mind." 

EXERCISE. 

Here is some fine philosophizing concerning the de- 
velopment of muscles. 

Page 198-9. Because the muscles of the black- 
smith's arm are strongly developed, it does not follow 
that exercise has produced this result, or that a less 
used arm must be weak. If matter were the cause of 
action, and if muscles, without volition of mortal 
mind, could lift the hammer and strike the anvil, it 
might be thought true that hammering would enlarge 
the muscles. The trip-hammer is not increased in size 
by exercise. Why not, since muscles are as material 
as wood? Not because of muscular exercise but by 
reason of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm 
becomes stronger. 

Note. — This is fine reasoning comparing a trip- 



178 Comparative Christian Science 

hammer to a man's arm, and asserting that the trip- 
hammer would increase in size, if it only had mortal 
mind to give it a little lift, and encouragement. 

FATIGUE. 

Page 217. You say, Toil fatigues me/ But 
what is this me? Is it muscle or mind? Which is 
tired and so speaks? Without mind could the muscle 
be tired? Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for 
them? Matter is non-intelligent. Mortal mind does 
the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, 
made that weariness. You do not say a wheel is 
fatigued ; and yet the body is as material as the wheel. 
If it were not for what the human mind says of the 
body, the body, like the inanimate wheel, would never 
be weary. 

Note. — This is fine reasoning, do you wonder 
people cannot grasp the mighty truth in so-called 
Christian Science? Think of a cart-wheel and the 
human body being identical as far as sensation is con- 
cerned. We often see poor horses in the summer 
along toward night, after they have been pulling an 
ice wagon all day, stagger and appear tired. It 
surely cannot be the hard work they have done through 



Comparative Christian Science 179 

the day, they doubtless have been saying to them- 
selves, how tired I am. 

OLD AGE. 

Page 244. Man in Science is neither young nor old. 
He has neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a 
vegetable, nor a migratory mind. He does not pass 
from matter to mind," from the mortal to the immortal, 
from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such admis- 
sions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma. 

Page 246. Man is not a pendulum, swinging be- 
tween evil and good, joy and sorrow, sickness and 
health, life and death. Never record ages. Time- 
tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies 
against manhood and womanhood. 

Note. — Just forget your age and your birth-day and 
you will never grow old. 

THE PROBLEM OF EXPENSIVE LIVING 
SOLVED. 

Page 254. God requires perfection, but not until 
the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the 
victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being 
clothed materially before the spiritual facts of exist- 



180 Comparative Christian Science 

ence are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When 
we wait patiently on God and speak Truth righteously, 
He directs our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the 
ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin 
aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the 
great problem of being, is doing much. 

During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science 
may not be achieved prior to the change called death, 
for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do 
not understand; but the human self must be evangel- 
ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly 
to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the 
material. 

Note. — Mrs. Eddy evidently believed that precept 
was better than example, for all this time while she was 
trying to impress upon her followers, the folly of hold- 
ing to material things, she herself was gathering in 
the "Filthy lucre," and kept at it until she hoarded 
over two million dollars. 

It is very evident that she had an eye to business, 
when she advised her followers to "abandon as fast as 
practical the material, and rely upon the Spiritual," 
holding out as a special inducement immunity from 
hunger or cold. But she was thoughtful enough to 
caution her good people not to stop eating, and drink- 



Comparative Christian Science 181 

ing, and dressing too hastily, for spiritual existence 
was gained step by step, but assured them that it was 
bound to come, but possibly not till after death. What 
a wonderful revelation! 

The human body will be exempt from eating, drink- 
ing, and clothing after death. This surely will be a 
revelation to most people. Such a startling discovery 
must come from a great mind. 

MIND AND SPIRIT. 

Page 281-2. The mind supposed to exist in matter 
or beneath a skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense 
and false conception as to man and Mind. When we 
put off the false sense for the true, and see that sin and 
mortality have neither Principle nor permanency, we 
shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual 
origin or rightful existence. They are native nothing- 
ness, out of which error would simulate creation 
through a man formed from dust. 

Divine Science does not put new wine in old bottles, 
Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our 
false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of 
Spirit. Matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has 
no place in matter. 

Matter and its effects — sin, sickness and death — are 



182 Comparative Christian Science 

states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come 
to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not 
ideas, but illusions. 

Page 285. Matter is not sentient and cannot be 
cognizant of good or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. 
Man's individuality is not material. This Science of 
being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call 
Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of 
being for time and eternity. 

What then, is the material personality which 
suffers, sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and 
likeness of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted 
likeness, the unlikeness called sin, sickness and death. 

Page 286-7. Sin, sickness and death are com- 
prised in human material belief, and belong not to the 
divine mind. They are without a real origin or exist- 
ence. They have neither Principle nor permanence, 
but belong, with all that is material and temporal, to 
the nothingness of error, which simulates the creations 
of Truth. All creations of Spirit are eternal; but 
creations of matter must return to dust. Error sup- 
poses man to be both mental and material. Divine 
Science contradicts this postulate and maintains man's 
spiritual identity. 

Did God, Truth, create error? No! Neither 



Comparative Christian Science 183 

understanding nor truth accompanies error, nor is 
error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some- 
thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I 
am not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the 
Scriptures declare that man was made in God's like- 
ness. The supposition that life, substance, and intelli- 
gence are in matter, or of it, is an error. Matter is 
neither a thing nor a person, but merely the objective 
supposition of Spirits opposite. 

Note. — The last lines will enable the reader to get 
Mrs. Eddy's definition and idea of Matter. It seems a 
pity that this great discovery or revelation could not 
have been in Webster's time so that he could have 
known better than to have given such a wrong impres- 
sion to the millions of people who have been under the 
erroneous idea that everything they saw or touched 
was matter. 

Page 289. Mortal man can never rise from the 
temporal debris of error, belief in sin, sickness and 
death, until he learns that God is the only life. The 
belief that life and sensation are in the body should be 
overcome by the understanding of what constitutes 
man as the image of God. Then Spirit will have over- 
come the flesh. A wicked mortal is not the idea of 
God. He is little else than the expression of error. 



184 Comparative Christian Science 

To suppose that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, 
revenge, have life abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. 

The belief that matter has life results, by the uni- 
versal law of mortal mind in a belief in death. So 
man, tree and flower are supposed to die ; but the fact 
remains, that God's universe is spiritual and immortal. 
Life is not in matter. Therefore it cannot be said 
to pass out of matter. Matter and death are mortal 
illusions. Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of 
Spirit, — of Life, not of matter. 

Page 294-5. If man is both mind and matter, the 
loss of one finger would take away some quality and 
quantity of the man, for matter and man would be one. 

The belief that matter thinks, sees or feels is not 
more real than the belief that matter enjoys and 
suffers. This mortal belief, misnamed man, is error, 
saying: "Matter has intelligence and sensation, 
Nerves feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can 
make a man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can 
kill man." 

This verdict of the so-called material senses, vic- 
timizes mortals, taught as they are by physiology and 
pathology. Brainology teaches that mortals are created 
to suffer and die. Mortal belief is a liar from the 
beginning. 



Comparative Christian Science 185 

Note. — It will be observed that Mrs. Eddy ignored 
every science, and the truth of the five senses. In fact 
she ignores everything that would appeal to a person's 
good common sense. 

We will now ask the reader to turn back to page 107 
in this book, and read the views of Mr. Adams con- 
cerning the body and its pleasures and suffering, and 
then judge for himself, which writer appeals to his 
reason, and to the intelligence of the public in general. 

TEMPERATURE IS MENTAL. 

Here is where we learn more wonderful facts that 
scientists have never discovered. 

Page 374. Heat and cold are products of mortal 
mind. 

Note. — What a wonderful discovery or revelation, 
whichever it may be, as Mrs. Eddy part of the time calls 
these wise sayings a discovery and part of the time a 
revelation. Whichever it may be does not matter as 
long as we have the benefit of the fact and can put it 
into everyday practice. If we want a drink of ice 
water we can look into the water and say you are ice 
cold. If we wish to make a cup of tea just look into 
the water and say you are getting very hot. 

If you are caught out a cold night when it is below 



1 86 Comparative Christian Science 

zero and have no overcoat, just say, / am very warm, 
and you will not feel the cold, or if in a hot sultry day 
when the thermometer is climbing up above ninety, 
just say how cool it is and what a nice cool breeze! 
You will not be obliged to purchase fuel to heat your 
house, nor ice to cool the refrigerator* simply say to 
the rooms you are warm, and to the ice box, you are 
cold! The reader might ask why it was that Mrs. 
Eddy always bundled up in expensive cloaks and furs 
in the winter, possibly it might be because they were 
becoming. 

Page 377. If your patient believes in taking cold, 
mentally convince him that matter cannot take cold, 
and that thought governs his liability. 

Note. — The writer was personally acquainted with a 
man who "got the faith" and at the same time got a 
severe cold, and got pneumonia, and his friends got for 
him the undertaker. 

On this same page Mrs. Eddy says, "The author 
never knew a patient who did not recover when the 
belief of disease had gone.' , 

What about her own husband? Mr. Eddy died at 
the age of forty-six, he had been teaching and practic- 
ing the so-called Christian Science for six years. Mrs. 
Eddy and her best students treated him, but he died 



Comparative Christian Science 187 

just like a common man, who believes in matter, and 
life and death, and heat and cold. It would appear 
that Asa Gilbert Eddy never got rid of his belief in 
matter. 

SUFFERING. 

Mrs. Eddy says: "Constant toil, deprivations, ex- 
posures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, 
can be experienced without suffering. If you sprain 
the muscles or wound the flesh, your remedy is at hand. 
Mind decides whether or not the flesh shall be dis- 
colored, painful, swollen, and inflamed." 

Xote. — The reader will remember that Mrs. Eddy 
has persistently denied the existence of flesh, bones, 
muscle, etc., and now she tells you how to treat them. 
Again she says, "You say or think, because you have 
partaken of salt fish, that you must be thirsty. 

Any supposed information, coming from the body 
or from inert matter as if it were intelligent, is an 
illustration of mortal mind. 

Page 386. Realize that the evidence of the senses 
is not to be accepted in the case of sickness, any more 
than it is in the case of sin. 

Expose the body to certain temperature, and belief 
says that you may catch cold and have catarrh ; but no 



1 88 Comparative Christian Science 

such result occurs without mind to demand it and pro- 
duce it. 

So long as mortals declare that certain states of 
atmosphere produce catarrh, fever, rheumatism, or 
consumption, those effects will follow, — not because 
of the climate, but on account of the belief. ,, 

Note. — Several years ago I had a man in my employ 
who lost thirty thousand dollars worth of cattle in 
Kansas in one night. A very severe blizzard came up 
and the temperature fell below zero. In the morning 
all of the cattle thought they were dead, and mortal 
mind had made such an impression on them that they 
never came to life, that is according to Eddyism. 

MIND AND BRAINS. 

This wonderful outburst of intelligence, discovery, 
or revelation, or whatever Mrs. Eddy might see fit to 
call it, should startle the world. 

Page 191. Mind has no affinity with matter, and 
therefore Truth is able to cast out the ills of the flesh. 
Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, the at- 
mosphere of intelligence. The belief that a pulpy 
substance under the skull is mind, is a mockery of in- 
telligence, a mimicry of mind. 

Note. — Here is where Webster gets turned down 



Comparative Christian Science 189 

again for •defining the brain as the seat of intelligence, 
and mind, for according to Mrs. Eddy's theory (or 
rather absolute knowledge) you could remove the brain 
and fill the skull with pulp or a bowl of mush and not 
interfere with a man's intelligence. 

THE FIVE SENSES. 

Page 488. Christian Science sustains with mortal 
proof the impossibility of any moral sense, and defines 
these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the testimony 
of which cannot be true either of man or of his Maker. 
The corporeal senses can take no cognizance of spirit- 
ual reality and immortality. Nerves have no more 
sensation, apart from what belief bestows upon them, 
than the fibers of a plant. 

Note. — We will stop here to ask why Mrs. Eddy 
sent out at midnight to get a dentist to extract a tooth. 

Page 489. The less mind there is manifested in 
matter the better. When the unthinking lobster loses a 
claw, the claw grows again. If the Science of Life 
were understood, it would be found that the senses of 
Mind are never lost, and that matter has no sensation. 
Then the human limb would be replaced as readily as 
the lobster's claw. Not with an artificial limb, but 
with the genuine one. 



190 Comparative Christian Science 

Note. — What a grand thing it would have been dur- 
ing the civil war, if Mrs. Eddy had instructed the 
soldiers how to grow hands and feet, and legs and 
arms. 

DEATH. 

Page 312. The senses regard a corpse, not as 
man, but simply as matter. People say, 'Man is dead/ 
but this death is the departure of a mortal's mind, not 
of matter. The matter is still there. The belief of 
that mortal, that he must die occasioned his departure ; 
yet you say that matter has caused his death. 

Note. — It appears that Mrs. Eddy could not get rid 
of the belief, for when the time came she too went the 
way of the millions of others who never claimed to be 
anything but flesh. Could a person conceive of a 
greater piece of nonsense? Every living thing has al- 
ways "had its day," and without doubt always will. 
Birth, growth, and death, are the natural consequences 
of Divine Law, and the animal and vegetable kingdom 
always have, and doubtless always will be governed by 
this law, regardless of Mrs. Eddy. 



Comparative Christian Science 191 

THEOLOGY. 

The theologian as well as the physician can become 
enlightened in his profession by heeding Mrs. Eddy's 
wonderful revelations. In the preface to Science and 
Health, we read: — 

Page 8. Theology and physics teach that both Spirit 
and matter are real and good, whereas the fact is, that 
Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit's opposite. 
The question, What is truth? is answered by demon- 
stration, — by healing both disease and sin; and this 
demonstration shows that Christian healing confers 
the most health and makes the best men. 

Page 7. Audible prayer is impressive; it gives 
momentary solemnity and elevation to thought, but 
does it produce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply 
into these things, we find that "a zeal not according to 
knowledge" gives occasion for reaction unfavorable to 
spiritual growth, sober resolve and wholesome percep- 
tion of God's requirements. 

The motives of verbal prayer may embrace too much 
love of applause to induce or encourage Christian 
sentiment. 

Physical sensation, not soul, produces material 
ecstacy and emotion. 



192 Comparative Christian Science 

A self-satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments 
never makes a Christian. 

Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a 
drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its 
power from human faith and belief. The drug does 
nothing, because it has no intelligence* It is a mortal 
belief not divine Principle or Love which causes a 
drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative. 

Page 36-8. The earthly price of spirituality in a 
material age and the great moral distance between 
Christianity and sensualism, preclude Christian Science 
from finding favor with the worldly minded. 

To those buried in the belief of sin and self, living 
only for pleasure, or the gratification of the senses, He 
said in substance : "Having eyes ye see not, and hav- 
ing ears ye hear not ; lest ye should understand and be 
converted, and I might heal you." He taught that the 
material senses shut out truth and its healing power. 

(This may explain why Mrs. Eddy never practiced healing after she 
became wealthy.) 

He overcome the world, the flesh, and all error, 
thus proving their nothingness. He wrought a full 
salvation from sin, sickness and death. The educated 
belief that the soul is in the body causes mortals to 



Comparative Christian Science 193 

regard death as a friend, as a stepping stone out of 
mortality into immortality and bliss. 

Page 39. The bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus 
overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to 
them. He was "the way." To Him, therefore, death 
was not the threshold over which he must pass into 
living glory. "Now," cried the apostle, "is the ac- 
cepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," — 
meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future 
world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in 
which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. 
Now is the time for so-called material pains and ma- 
terial pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, 
because impossible in Science. 

Note. — Mrs. Eddy had the faculty of making every- 
thing pertaining to the so-called material, fade away 
and disolve into nothingness, except the "mighty 
dollars" which showered down upon her, till she was 
literally buried in more than two million of them. 

CONTRADICTIONS. 

In Science and Health nearly every chapter contra- 
dicts the possibility of sin, suffering, and death, and 
repeatedly claims that man is not made of flesh, bones, 
blood, and muscle. In this same book we read on 



194 Comparative Christian Science 

Page 40, Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it 
was inevitable, for not otherwise could He show us 
the way and the power of truth. 

Page 45. His reply was "Spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see me have." 

Note. — It will be observed that when Mrs. Eddy 
would quote scripture it would contradict the silly asser- 
tions that matter was nothing but a belief. 

Page 44. Jesus did not depend upon food or pure 
air to resuscitate wasted energies. 

Note. — I would very much like to know how Mrs. 
Eddy got so much information from the Scripture 
which does not in any way allude to what she terms 
Truth, or her discovery, or divine revelation. 

Page 126. The Bible has been my only authority. 

Note. — I will defy any person to find in either the 
Old or New Testament a single verse that corroborates 
with the assertions boldly made in Science and Health, 
viz., that sin, sickness and death has no reality; that 
pain is a delusion ; that man is not made of flesh, bones, 
blood, nerves, muscle, etc. ; that eating and drinking 
are habits that may be overcome ; that there is no sen- 
sation in matter; that no disease is contagious; that all 
laws of nature and hygiene may be suspended without 
injury; that broken bones may be adjusted by denying 



Comparative Christian Science 195 

matter; that marriage was not commendable; that toil 
cannot fatigue ; that the human body has no more sen- 
sation than the inanimate wheel; and a score of other 
crazy assertions, that we might enumerate. In contra- 
diction to the claim that Jesus did not abide by nature's 
laws, or become weary, we will cite the reader to the 
fourth chapter of St. John. "Jesus therefore, being 
wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it 
was about the sixth hour. 

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water : 
Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink." (For His dis- 
ciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) If 
eating was not necessary to sustain life, why did Jesus 
send His disciples to the city to purchase meat ? 

Page 53. He knew the mortal errors which con- 
stitute the material body. If that Godlike and glorified 
man were physically on earth to-day, would not some, 
who now profess to love Him, reject Him? 

Note. — More contradictions. 

Page 30. Born of woman Jesus' advent into the 
flesh partook partly of Mary's earthly condition. 

Note. — Here Mrs. Eddy speaks of Jesus in the flesh, 
and in her Glossary, Page 586, she defines flesh as "An 
error of physical belief; an illusion." Fine science, is 
it not? 



196 Comparative Christian Science 

The reader will remember how much stress Mrs. 
Eddy has placed on mortal mind, repeatedly stating 
that matter and all material things were nothing but 
Mortal Mind. 

Page 103. In reality there is no mortal mind, and 
consequently no transference of mortal thoughts and 
will-power. 

Note. — This puts on the finishing touch, proving 
that there is nothing to anything. 

Page 107. God had been graciously preparing me 
during many years for the reception of this final 
revelation." 

Page 108. Whence came to me this heavenly con- 
viction? According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the 
grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of 
His power." 

Page no. No human pen or tongue taught me the 
Science contained in this book, Science and Health. 

Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science 
to heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was 
lost sight of. 

Note. — Mrs. Eddy repeatedly claims that God 
callled her to take up the work where Jesus left it, and 
spread the truth broadcast. You would think that 
nothing would please her better than to see thousands 



Comparative Christian Science 197 

of schools spring up to spread the truth. But no, unless 
she saw some of the profit from every school and book 
coming her way she immediately made a great fuss. 

Page 112. Any theory of Christian Science, which 
departs from what has already been stated and proved 
to be true, affords no foundation upon which to 
establish a genuine school of this Science. Also if any 
so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and 
yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that 
author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it 
inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the 
Hebrew Decalogue "Thou shalt not steal." 

Note. — Mrs. Eddy had a large number of law suits 
with her students who branched out for themselves. 
Her belief in matter was normal regarding $ $ $. 

Page 131. Must Christian Science come through 
the Christian churches as some persons insist? This 
Science has come already, after the manner of God's 
appointing, but the churches seem not ready to receive 
it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came unto 
his own, and his own received him not." 

Page 134. Man-made doctrines are waning. They 
have not waxed strong in times of trouble. Devoid of 
the Christ-power, how can they illustrate the doctrines 
of Christ or the miracles of grace? "Denials of the 



198 Comparative Christian Science 

possibility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the 
very element, which gave it divine force and its as- 
tonishing and unequalled success in the first century. ,, 

Note. — Does the reader know of any Christian 
church that denies the possibility of Christian healing? 

I will say in this connection that most of the Chris- 
tian churches could accomplish a great good by estab- 
lishing societies for the purpose of educating old and 
young in mental and physical hygiene. The work 
should be done in a practical and scientific manner, 
without aiming to destroy a person's mind in order to 
produce results. 

Page 142. We must seek the individual garment, 
the whole Christ, as our first proof of Christianity, for 
Christ, Truth, alone can furnish us with absolute 
evidence. 

If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and 
architectural skill, making dome and spire tremulous 
with beauty, turn the poor and the stranger from the 
gate, they at the same time shut the door on progress. 
In vain do the manger and the cross tell their story to 
pride and fusion. Sensuality palsies the right hand, 
and causes the left to let go its grasp on the divine. 

As in Jesus' time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need 



Comparative Christian Science 199 

to be wiped out of the temple, and humanity and divine 
Science to be welcomed in. 

Note. — It is somewhat amusing to note what Mrs. 
Eddy had to say about display, considering the fact 
that she had a hundred thousand dollar residence, and 
a million dollar church. 

It is not necessary to comment on the tyranny and 
greed of the editor of Christian Science. 

A VERY MODEST CLAIM. 

Page 545. Outside of Christian Science all is 
vague and hypothetical, the opposite of truth; yet this 
opposite, in its false view of God and man impudently 
demands a blessing. * * * 

(The reader must bear in mind that hereafter it will be the height of 
impudence for any church or any member of a church outside of Christian 
Science to even insinuate that small blessings are thankfully received, for 
nothing in this line will come your way till you get into Science.) 

"Man, created by God, was given dominion over the 
whole earth. The notion of a material universe is ut- 
terly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from 
mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all 
human doctrines and conclusions, and do not accord 
infinity to deity. The translators of this record of 
scientific creation entertained a false sense of being. 

They believed in the existence of matter, its propa- 



200 Comparative Christian Science 

gation and power. From that standpoint of error, 
they could not apprehend the nature and operation of 
Spirit. Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scrip- 
ture, which is so glorious in its spiritual signification. 
Truth has but one reply to all error, — to sin, sickness 
and death: "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto 
dust [nothingness] shalt thou return." 

The false belief that spirit is now submerged in 
matter, at some future time to be emancipated from it, 
— this belief alone is mortal. 

Note. — When Christian Science, or rather Eddyism, 
first proclaimed this absurd doctrine, people as a rule 
looked upon it as a joke because it did not appeal to 
reason, and in fact it never has appealed to people of 
higher education. At the same time there are thou- 
sands of people ready to accept any explanation to 
what they cannot comprehend. 

A very few people know what power there is in the 
law of suggestion, as they have never studied practical 
psychology, consequently when Mrs. Eddy occasionally 
succeeded in demonstrating that certain ailments could 
be in certain people relieved without medicine, credu- 
lous people were ready to believe that Mrs. Eddy was 
proclaiming the truth regarding her Divine revelation. 

Doctors of Divinity and doctors of medicine looked 



Comparative Christian Science 201 

at the new cult, as being too absurd to affect either the 
church or the practice of medicine. We must all admit 
that both have been materially affected not because 
there is any truth in Mrs. Eddy's claims of Divine in- 
spiration, but because there is a great truth in the 
underlying principle of mental suggestion. A person 
with the brazen assurance to stand up and claim that 
no human being had the correct understanding of the 
scriptures but herself, is sure to have great influence 
with certain temperaments. The following is a sample : 
Page 546. Genesis and the apocalypse seem more 
obscure than other portions of the Scripture, because 
they cannot possibly be interpreted from a material 
standpoint. To the author they are transparent, for 
they contain the deep divinity of the Bible. 



PROOF BY DEMONSTRATION 

Here is where Mrs. Eddy makes her great hit to 
prove that all she says is true, and it takes well with 
all who swallow it as they would a sugar-coated pill. 
"Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. 
The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, 
shine in the darkness, though the darkness, compre- 
hending them not, may deny their reality. The proof 
that the system stated in this book is Christianly scien- 
tific resides in the good this system accomplishes, for it 
cures on a divine demonstrable Principle which all may 
understand." 

"If mathematics should present a thousand different 
examples of a rule, the proving of one example would 
authenticate all the others. A simple statement of 
Christian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains 
the proof of all here said of Christian Science. If one 
of the statements in this book is true, every one must 
be true." 

Fine logic this is ; if a person has ever been known 
to tell the truth, he could not tell a lie. These wonder- 
ful demonstrations that Mrs. Eddy claims as her dis- 

202 



Comparative Christian Science 203 

coveries, are nothing but mental healing, and the sys- 
tem is as old as earthly habitation. It was practiced in 
Egypt, India and China. I have already made men- 
tion of my investigation along this line in Europe. 
This system has always been practiced more or less in 
the Catholic church. 

The work was revived in America by P. P. Quimby 
of Belfast, Maine; his success was so great that he 
opened an office in Portland, Maine, in 1859. Mr. 
Quimby was a fine man, he had a great many patients, 
and several students. Mrs. Eddy in 1862 took treat- 
ment of Dr. Quimby — as he was called. This was 
when her name was Glover. When Mrs. Eddy or 
Glover began treatment she was a nervous wreck. 
She was a splendid subject for mental treatment and 
her rapid recovery was marvelous. She spent three 
weeks with Dr. Quimby, putting in a large part of the 
time in studying his method. About a year later Mrs. 
Glover returned and took a full course of instruction 
of Dr. Quimby; for years she practiced the Science 
calling it "Moral Science." She used Dr. Quimby's 
manuscripts and called her teaching the Quimby 
Method. Calling the method a religion, or a discovery, 
or Divine revelation, was an after-thought, which 
proved a great financial success. 



204 Comparative Christian Science 

Notwithstanding the fact that Mrs. Eddy's motives 
were purely selfish, and that the so-called Science is 
absolutely void of either science, sense or reason, it has 
paved the way for practical and scientific methods of 
mental healing. 

The Episcopal church has taken up this work and 
for several years it has met with excellent results in 
reaching cases amenable to mental treatment. At the 
same time has not deprived people of their liberty to 
apply for medical aid when judgment demanded it. 

A PERNICIOUS DOCTRINE. 

Any doctrine that could not safely be established 
as a universal practice, for all people at all times, and 
in all places under all circumstances is a pernicious 
doctrine. 

For illustration, when deadly ravages of yellow 
fever in the South were rapidly turning a land of sun- 
shine and happiness into darkness, desolation and 
•death, would any sane person argue that stringent 
methods of quarantine were idle dreams of mortal 
mind? 

What has been done to stay the tide of this deadly 
evil? Cities have been supplied with sewers, streets 
have been cleaned, alleys are no longer dumping 



Comparative Christian Science 205 

grounds for all manner of filth. Health officers have 
been on the alert, fighting to annihilate deadly germs 
of yellow fever. Is it either sane, safe, or sense, to 
make light of sanitary and stringent laws, impeding the 
progress of contagion? Should you be so unfortunate 
as one of these poor victims cursed with this deadly 
fever, which of these two treatments would you prefer? 

The first treatment, administered by one of the Red 
Cross nurses, consists of bathing the burning face in 
cold water, placing small pieces of ice on the parched 
tongue, purifying the air, and giving such medicine 
and nutrition as directed by the physician, and admin- 
istering to the patient's physical wants. 

The second treatment, administered by a Scientist, 
consists of reading from Science and Health, Page 
379. "Fevers are errors of various types. The quick- 
ened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain 
in the head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the body 
by a mortal mind." 

The practitioner in C. S. would doubtless add, "You 
have no fever, you are not hot, you are not thirsty, you 
have no body, all is mortal mind." 

Reader, how would you like this treatment? How 
would you like to live in a city governed by people 
who ignore filth, contagion, and disease ? What would 



206 Comparative Christian Science 

be the consequence if any city should ignore all laws of 
sanitation, use shallow wells, drink polluted water, ig- 
nore sewerage, and all laws pertaining to health or 
contagion ? 

Think of letting children with small pox go to 
school and into crowded places. 

Think of letting people with Bubonic plague rush 
into this country from their own stricken districts. 
We would soon have a land of devastation and desola- 
tion. 

Any organization that belittles the enforcement of 
laws for protecting public health is an enemy to human 
progress. I doubt very much if any sane man or 
woman really believes in the insane doctrine that these 
deadly diseases do not exist, and that contagion is all 
a myth. 

Many people have been led into the cult by seeing 
practical demonstrations of mental healing, but after 
careful investigation, understood the healing was pro- 
duced simply by the law of suggestion in place of 
denying realities. 

These people would to-day gladly identify them- 
selves with an organization of mental healing that did 
not insist upon its members becoming a tool, and 



Comparative Christian Science 207 

pledge themselves to renounce their liberty and good 
common sense. 

We will touch upon just one more subject in this 
comparison of Christian Science by Mr. Adams and 
Mrs. Eddy, and this is of vital importance. 

MARRIAGE. 

We will ask the reader to turn back to Page 117 and 
read what Mr. Adams wrote concerning marriage, and 
contrast it with the following from Mrs. Eddy's writ- 
ings in Science and Health. It will be observed that 
Mrs. Eddy does not enthuse the reader very materially 
on the subject of marriage, possibly it may be on ac- 
count of her own personal experience. Mrs. Eddy's 
first husband, George Washington Glover, lived but 
about six months; her second husband, Daniel Patter- 
son, an itinerant dentist, deserted her, and her third 
husband, Asa Gilbert Eddy, was an unsophisticated 
fellow who came from the hills of Vermont and 
entered her class as a student. Her name then was 
Mary Baker Glover Patterson. It is said that after a 
brief courtship of twenty-four hours, a marriage was 
agreed upon, the bride being fifty-six years of age and 
the groom but forty. At the end of the sixth year the 
groom, Mr. Eddy, went "into error." In other words 



208 Comparative Christian Science 

he died, as we would say. You might think that the 
death of Mrs. Eddy's husband would retard the growth 
of Christian Science, but it had just the opposite effect. 
It demonstrated that Mrs. Eddy was correct in her 
hallucination that three of her old students who had 
deserted her were tormenting herself and husband with 
their malicious animal magnetism. A large share of 
the time previous to the death of Mr. Eddy they were 
both under mortal dread of this invisible enemy. 

Mrs. Eddy would devote a large share of her time, 
while giving lessons in the Science, trying to instruct 
her students the proper way to resist malicious animal 
magnetism. She evidently was a very poor example to 
give counsel in the art, as she complained that the evil 
minds of Kennedy, Spofford, and Arns, her three for- 
mer faithful — but now rebellious — students were kill- 
ing herself and husband and that they could not sleep 
nights. She had the system down so fine that she 
could tell which one of the three had been hurling men- 
tal arsenic into their bodies during the night. Now 
the death of Mr. Eddy demonstrated to the entire satis- 
faction of the bereaved widow and the cult, that ma- 
licious animal magnetism and mental arsenic had got 
in its deadly work, and another point was scored in 
favor of Mrs. Eddy's wonderful divine revelation. 



Comparative Christian Science 209 

The reader will doubtless exclaim How can sensi- 
ble people be so misled ? The answer is very plain and 
simple. When a person is in a semi-hypnotic condition 
they will believe one thing just as quick as another. 
Reason does not enter into the matter, simply sugges- 
tion. 

Now we will proceed with our comparison regard- 
ing marriage. 

Pages 56-69. Marriage is the legal and moral pro- 
vision for generation among human kind, until the 
spiritual creation is discerned intact, is apprehended 
and understood, and His Kingdom is come as in the 
vision of the Apocalypse, — where the corporeal sense of 
creation was cast out, and its spiritual sense was re- 
vealed from heaven, — marriage will continue, subject 
to such moral regulations as will secure increasing 
virtue. Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the 
disappointments it involves or the hopes it fulfills. To 
happify existence by constant intercourse with those 
adapted to elevate it, should be the motive of society. 
Unity of spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy's 
drooping wings trail in the dust. 

Ill arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the 
human mind may be different, but they should be con- 
cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish ambi- 



210 Comparative Christian Science 

tion, noble life motives, and purity, — these constitu- 
ents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and 
collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence. 

There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the 
horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of 
all another's time and thoughts. With additional joys, 
benevolence should grow more diffuse. The narrow- 
ness of jealousy, which would confine a wife or a hus- 
band forever within four walls, will not promote the 
sweet interchange of confidence and love; but on the 
other hand, a wandering desire for incessant amuse- 
ment outside the home circle is a poor augury for the 
happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on 
earth, and it should be the center, though not the boun- 
dary, of the affections. 

Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes 
the welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more 
salutary in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid 
indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this, and re- 
member how slight a word or deed may renew the old 
trysting-times. 

After marriage it is too late to grumble over incom- 
patibility of disposition. A mutual understanding 
should exist before this union and continue ever after, 
for the deception is fatal to happiness. 



Comparative Christian Science 211 

The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long 
as its moral obligations are kept intact; but the fre- 
quency of divorce shows that the sacredness of this 
relationship is losing its influence, and that fatal mis- 
takes are undermining its foundations. Separation 
should never take place, and it never would if both 
husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists. 

(Here is where Mrs. Eddy gets in a strong point in favor of her cult. 
I would add that it would be very hazardous for a Christian Scientist of 
either sex to marry a person of normal mind. For instance, the one who 
had not been convinced that there could be no pain in matter, might wake 
up in the night complaining of severe pain and great suffering, and de- 
mand some hot ginger tea or a hot water bottle, or both. The enlightened 
companion would say, "You have no pain, forget it and go to sleep, and 
don't let mortal mind disturb our sweet dreams." The baby may be taken 
with the croup, the father is greatly worried and wants to call the doctor, 
the mother declares that nothing is the trouble with the baby, and refuses 
medical aid, and the baby dies. You can easily imagine the discord that 
would result. Mental delusion and practical reason do not assimilate more 
than fire and water, and when the attempt is made in either case a dis- 
astrous combustion is sure to follow.) 

So physical sense, not discerning the true happiness 
of being, places it on a false basis. Science will correct 
the discord, and teach us life's sweeter harmonies. 

Soul has infinite resource with which to bless man- 
kind, and happiness would be more attained and would 
be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. 
Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of 
immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness 
with the limits of personal sense. The senses confer 
no real enjoyment. 



212 Comparative Christian Science 

Our false views of life hide eternal harmony, and 
produce the ills of which we complain. Because mor- 
tals believe in material laws and reject the Science of 
Mind, this does not make materiality first, and the supe- 
rior law of Soul last. You would never think that 
flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease 
than the controlling mind, if you understood the science 
of being. 

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beau- 
tiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His ori- 
gin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor 
does he pass through material conditions prior to reach- 
ing intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate 
source of being! God is his Father, and Life is the law 
of his being. 

Pride, envy or jealousy seems on most occasions to 
be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive 
Christianity. When a man lends a helping hand to 
some noble woman, struggling alone with adversity, 
his wife should not say, "It is never well to interfere 
with your neighbor's business." A wife is sometimes 
debarred by covetous domestic tyrant from giving the 
ready aid her sympathy and charity would afford. 
Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further- 
more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he 



Comparative Christian Science 213 

declared in the resurrection there should be no more 
marrying or giving in marriage, but men would be as 
the angels. Then shall Soul rejoice in its own, in 
which passion has no part. Then white-robed purity- 
will unite in one person masculine wisdom and fem- 
inine love, spiritual understanding and perpetual 
peace. 

Until it is learned that God is the Father of all 
marriage will continue. 

Let not mortals permit a disregard of law which 
might lead to a worse state of society than now exists. 

(The reader must draw his own conclusions.) 

Divorces should warn the age of some fundamental 
error in the marriage state. The union of the sexes 
suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and 
its harmony, life should be more metaphysically re- 
garded. 

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day 
show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of 
the age, struggling against the advancing spiritual era. 
Beholding the world's lack of Christianity and the 
powerlessness of vows to make home happy, the human 
mind will at length demand a higher affection. 

Matrimony, which was once a fixed fact among us, 
must lose its present slippery footing, and man must 



214 Comparative Christian Science 

find permanence and peace in a more spiritual adher- 
ence. 

(It is somewhat uncertain to the writer's mind just what wonderful 
transfiguration Mrs. Eddy would bring about, but it is very evident that 
she had no intention of establishing a matrimonial bureau.) 

Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great 
architect, has created men and women in Science. 

Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of 
mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flower of 
Eden and scatters love's petals to decay. Be not in 
haste to take the vow "until death do us part." Con- 
sider its obligations, its responsibilities, its relations 
to your growth and to your influence on other lives. 

Christian Science presents unfoldment, nor accre- 
tion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to 
mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man 
and the universe. 

If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring 
spiritually, they can educate others spiritually, and not 
conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. 
Some day the child will ask his parent : "Do you keep 
the first Commandment? Do you have one God and 
creator, or is man a Creator?" 

If the father replies, "God creates man through 
man," the child may ask, "Do you teach that spirit 



Comparative Christian Science 215 

creates materially, or do you declare that Spirit is in- 
finite, therefore matter is out of the question?" 

Note. — A brief summary of Mrs. Eddy's sayings 
would signify that the old proverb which declares the 
"third trial the charm" did not prove true in her case. If 
she had used better judgment herself or consulted her 
friends in her last marriage she might have entertained 
a higher idea of marriage. Think of a woman of fifty- 
six who claimed to be far above the most holy person 
living, marrying a green country fellow of forty. This 
marriage took place in 1877, eleven years after she 
claimed God had prepared her to take up the work of 
Jesus and "deliver the children of men from every 
evil." 

These claims are fully set forth in Science and 
Health, Page 107. Mrs. Eddy's writings insinuate 
that the scriptures bear her out in speaking so dispar- 
agingly of marriage, but this can be easily refuted by 
reading St. Mark Chapter 10: "But from the begin- 
ning of creation God made them male and female. For 
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and 
cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: 
so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What 
therefore God hath joined together, let not man put 
asunder." 



GOOD SENSE METHODS 

The remainder of this book will be devoted to what 
I consider good common-sense methods for physical 
and mental improvement. 

Any cult that makes light of the observance of 
hygiene, and teaches its followers that ignorance is 
far better than knowledge, and the less a person knows 
about physiology the better it is for them, should be 
considered dangerous and detrimental to the public 
welfare. 

Every intelligent person knows that the mind has 
a wonderful power over the body, but to absolutely 
deny the existence of a physical body is too absurd for 
intelligent people to discuss. 

I will endeavor to show how we may get the bene- 
fit of mental healing and still retain our minds. I 
will also attempt to demonstrate what may be accom- 
plished physically. 



216 



Good Sense 
Methods 

for Physical and 
Mental Improvement 



MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH 

Better than grandeur, 

Better than gold, 
Than wealth or title 

A hundred fold; 
Is a healthy body, 

And a mind at ease; 
With simple pleasures 

That always please. 

HOW TO SECURE AND MAINTAIN GOOD 
HEALTH 

Good health is not secured or maintained by a strict 
observance to any one Fad. The human body is so 
constituted, that if a person would live in accordance 
to the laws of nature, good health would prevail in 
place of the scores of ills, which the human family are 
cursed with. 

Even after a person has impaired his health by 
disobeying the laws of nature, recuperation will, as a 
rule, take place, if nature's remedies are resorted to. 
The great majority of humanity are over- fed and 
over-doctored. 

I will enumerate the leading elements that sustain 
a perfect physique. 

217 



ESSENTIALS 
TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. 

Plenty of Sunlight for the Soul and Body. 



2. Pure Air and Deep Breathing. 

3. Pure Water and Plenty of it. 

4. Healthful Food — and just enough of it. 

5. Long Walks in the Open Air. 

6. Congenial Companionship. 

7. Innocent Amusements. 

8. A Contented Mind. 

9. Plenty of Sleep, and alone if possible. 

10. Have sufficient Will Power to override the 
many little annoyances which are surely to spring up, 
more or less, in every person's life. Dismiss from the 
mind, if possible, all Mental and Physical Ills and 
Drive away the Blues with Good Cheer. 



218 



Christian Science 219 

WHAT IS MAN? 

"Man is the Noblest Work of God/' 

"And God said, 'Let us make man in our image, 
after our likeness; and let them have dominion over 
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and 
over the cattle, and over all the earth/ " 

A person who has made a study of physiology, is 
so impressed with the wonderful structure of the 
human body, that he becomes bewildered, when he 
realizes how indifferent the great mass of humanity 
are, concerning the structure of the entire physical 
organization. 

A man will study all the different parts of his auto- 
mobile and familiarize himself with each part, and he 
fully realizes that every part must be in perfect work- 
ing order, if not, the entire machine will be out of 
service. 

How few people understand the functions of the 
human organs. The fact is, the great majority of 
humanity could not name and locate the organs of the 
human body, saying nothing of the functions that each 
organ must perform, in order to maintain a healthy 
body. I will not attempt to give a course of lessons in 
physiology in this work, but will call the attention of 



220 Rational and Comparative 

the reader to the absolute necessity of a certain knowl- 
edge of some of the points of the most vital importance 
concerning the structure and functions of different 
organs. This will be done in connection with the dis- 
cussion on the ten Essentials to health. 

SUNSHINE. 

While all of the different elements we have men- 
tioned as being very essential in maintaining health, 
nothing can be of more importance than plenty of sun- 
shine. To illustrate this fact just take into considera- 
tion for one moment, the law of vegetation. Would 
you expect to grow beautiful flowers or nutritious 
vegetables, without sunlight? You could not even 
grow a decent potato. Have you ever seen a potato 
stalk that grew in a cellar? If you have you saw a 
slim, white, brittle stalk that looked poor, puny and 
weak. Contrast this with a stalk that grows in the 
sunlight, that is strong and full of life, health and 
vigor. 

You will see thousands of people who represent the 
potato stalk grown in the cellar. Sunshine produces 
life, cheerfulness and vitality, and is of absolute neces- 
sity to all who desire to maintain a healthy body, and 



Christian Science 221 

as well to those who are trying to restore to a normal 
condition a broken down constitution. 

While living in California I saw many people com- 
ing from the East for the purpose of restoring their 
health. Those who went to the country and lived in 
tents, open air and sunshine, were — as a rule — bene- 
fited, but those who located in the city spending most 
of their time in their rooms would experience very 
little benefit. 

Mental conditions, as well as physical, are to a very 
great extent governed by sunshine. Many people 
become despondent by sitting around in dark gloomy 
rooms, if they would get out in the open sunshine, 
cheerfulness would prevail in place of despondency. 

PURE AIR AND DEEP BREATHING. 

This subject is of such vital importance, that we 
feel compelled to give a few hints pertaining to the 
laws of physiology. Air is such a common thing that 
the major part of humanity do not stop to consider its 
vital importance in sustaining life, if they did they 
would neither sit nor sleep in poorly ventilated rooms. 

Would a refined person think of washing their hands 
every day for a week, in the same basin of water? No, 
you say, the idea strikes you as being too horrible, well 



222 Rational and Comparative 

let us go a little farther. It would really seem uncivil- 
ized for a dozen people to wash their hands in the same 
basin of water; as revolting as this may appear, the 
hygienic effect would not be one-half as bad as to sit 
in a small room with half a dozen people breathing 
the same air over and over again. You are taking 
into your lungs dead, impure air that they have 
breathed out from their lungs, after it became cor- 
rupted with the impurities of their body. We breathe 
about fifteen times every minute, inhaling from twenty 
to thirty cubic inches at each breath, and in order to 
supply the system with pure air to breathe, each per- 
son should have a space containing 800 cubic feet, a 
room 9x10 ft. with 8 ft. ceiling, with good ventila- 
tion. In place of this we often see half a dozen people 
in a small room with no ventilation, and how often do 
we see in America from 75 to 100 people packed into 
a street car with as many hanging to straps as there 
are in seats. 

(This hanging to straps is purely an American 
habit — like chewing gum, neither are indulged in by 
foreigners. ) 

Very few people realize the importance of deep 
breathing. As has been stated we inhale about 30 cubic 
inches of air, at the same time the lungs may be made 



Christian Science 223 

to contain from 150 to 250 cubic inches. In breathing 
we carry oxygen to the blood every time we inhale; 
the amount, of course, depends upon the purity of the 
air, and how many cubic inches we inhale. Every time 
we exhale we throw out from the lungs, carbonic acid 
gas. 

The lungs are constantly taking new life to the 
system and expelling dead matter, consequently it is 
very easy to see the necessity of deep breathing in the 
pure air. 

When you are walking in the open air, it is a fine 
practice to close the mouth and inhale just as much air 
as you can, and be as long as you can doing it ; fill the 
lungs very slowly. After you have filled the lungs, 
hold the air in them for a moment, then open the lips 
just enough to let the air escape slowly. Be as long 
as you can inhaling and exhaling. After practicing 
the deep breathing a few moments, breathe natural for 
a short time, then repeat the deep breathing. 

Many people watch the papers looking for some 
new tonic, to give them strength; the air if properly 
used is full of tonic, and if people would only use their 
intelligence and freely partake of this great Elixir of 
Life, that God has given them to use freely "without 
money and without price," we would not see so many 



224 Rational and Comparative 

people void of animation. People will lock themselves 
in a sleeping room at night and fasten all the windows 
down to keep out robbers, and rob themselves of 
nature's great blessing — Fresh Air. 

WATER. 

Pure water freely used is another great remedy for 
restoring the system to a normal condition, it is also a 
means of preventing many ailments. 

Water is a great blood purifier, and an absolute 
necessity for maintaining the normal condition of the 
entire physical construction of the human body. 

The stomach and bowels must have plenty of water, 
if they are deprived of a sufficient quantity that nature 
has intended, the result will be dyspepsia and consti- 
pation. The lungs and skin are constantly throwing 
off moisture. We are constantly perspiring without 
being cognizant of the fact, this is what is called 
insensible perspiration which is constantly conveying 
effete matter from the body through the skin, this 
work requires plenty of water. Every time we exhale 
a breath from the lungs, we give off a quantity of 
watery vapor which is also heavily laden with impun- 
ities that must be expelled from the system in order to 
maintain health. 



Christian Science 225 

At many health resorts, people make a practice of 
drinking one gallon of water each day, if they would 
do this at home, and take the same amount of exercise 
that they do at resorts, they would doubtless derive 
just as much benefit. It is an excellent practice to 
drink a glass of hot water every morning before 
breakfast, and a glass of water and a raw apple before 
retiring is fine for regulating the bowels. 

Don't be afraid of w T ater, use it freely inside and 
outside of the body, remember it is one of nature's 
great remedies. 

HEALTHFUL FOOD. 

The American people have, of late, been blessed (or 
otherwise) with what we might call a superabundance 
of advice, concerning what to eat, when to eat, how 
much to eat, and what not to eat, and when not to 
eat, etc., etc. 

Several years ago I spent a week at a sanitarium 
just to study the methods, and the people. The 
stomach was the great hobby. If a man had corns, 
the trouble originated in the stomach, according to the 
analysis of the chemist who made the examination and 
furnished you with a chart which looked very much 
as if a chain of lightning had passed over it several 



226 Rational and Comparative 

times. From this chart the doctor would diagnose 
your case and assign you to a certain table where you 
could not see or smell meat, that deadly enemy to 
humanity. 

I was somewhat amused at a large, muscular fellow 
who came to be treated for rheumatism. The doctor 
said (as usual), "You have a very bad stomach." 
"Yes," the fellow said, "I have a wicked stomach, I 
have never eaten anything in my life that the stomach 
could not demolish at short notice and cry for more. 
I think my stomach will digest iron nails." The 
doctor looked nonplussed and said, "There must be 
some mistake, we will give you another examination." 

This illustrates how easy it is for people to ride a 
hobby, in the treatment of ailments. The vegetarian 
diet was another great fad, to eat meat was something 
perfectly loathsome, not only harmful but disgusting 
and degrading. To show the contrast concerning the 
views of doctors in different health resorts and sani- 
tariums, I will mention an experience I had in 
Germany while on a little investigating trip. Some of 
the German doctors, in the place of ridiculing the use 
of meat, gave certain patients nothing but meat to eat. 
Steam cooked ham is a very popular diet with some 
German and French doctors, but it must be remem- 



Christian Science 227 

bered that the ham in Europe is very superior to our 
American ham. 

The milk fed French ham is extra fine and sells in 
Paris for 80 cents a pound, and a good sized milk fed 
chicken sells for $2.00, so you can see it would 
certainly be economy to be a vegetarian if you lived 
there and did a large amount of entertaining. The 
subject of eating meat has been very thoroughly dis- 
cussed, pro and con. I have given the matter 
sufficient investigation to know positively that the 
average person can enjoy the best of health by living 
a vegetarian life, or by eating plenty of good healthy 
meat with other food. I do not agree with some, that 
it is degrading to eat meat, but I think it is very 
degrading for the trusts to make the price prohibitive 
to poor families. 

If the scriptures are to be taken into account, it 
seems quite evident that meat was made to eat. We 
read in Genesis, "God made the beast of the earth 
after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every- 
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and 
God saw it was good." "And the fear of you and the 
dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, 
and upon every fowl of the air. Every moving thing 
that liveth shall be meat for you." 



228 Rational and Comparative 

While these quotations as well as many of like sub- 
stance may show that man was intended to be a meat 
eater, it does not prove that meat is necessary to 
sustain life or produce a healthful, vigorous, well 
developed physical organization. 

I think that the strongest, best developed people I 
have ever seen were the inhabitants of Northern New 
England, where meat in the family was as scarce as 
diamonds. The average farmer would have from six 
to twelve children to feed and clothe, so you can easily 
imagine that roast beef and porterhouse steak were 
not prominent features of the menu. 

Plenty of healthful food would be on the table, such 
as potatoes and milk gravy, corn cake and molasses, 
bread and butter, corn mush, gingerbread, doughnuts, 
apple sauce, rice, and different kinds of pie and cake. 
They did not appear to miss meat because they had 
never been accustomed to it, and the fact that people 
who scarcely ever eat meat are strong and healthful, 
proves that meat is not an absolute necessity for either 
developing a healthful growth in children, or main- 
taining the body after development. The best rule 
concerning a person's diet is to let every one eat what- 
ever they desire providing it agrees with them, and if 
they discover that certain things are harmful, don't 



Christian Science 229 

eat them. The greatest danger lies in over-eating. 
The doctors and druggists always count on reaping a 
harvest after Thanksgiving day and Christmas. These 
festivities produce a multitude of dyspeptics. 

The digestive organs are capable of doing a certain 
amount of work, and as long as they are treated right, 
they will perform their function with marked regular- 
ity and ability, but nature did not provide for gluttony 
and riotous feasts. 

If a superabundance of food is taken into the 
stomach, the excess which the digestive organs cannot 
handle, simply decomposes and produces a bad effect 
upon all the digestive organs, and in fact upon the 
entire system. If the stomach is weak, a brisk rubbing 
after retiring will give it new life. 

WALKING AND EXERCISING IN OPEN AIR. 

As a rule the American people do not walk enough, 
if the average person starts out and walks two or three 
miles he thinks it a great achievement, while thousands 
of people do not walk one mile per day. The English 
people attach more importance to long walks and out 
door exercise. While stopping at a hotel in Wies- 
baden, Germany, I formed the acquaintance of an 
English gentleman, who proposed taking a "little 



230 Rational and Comparative 

walk," so I consented and we started out on what he 
called a "little walk." In the place of walking about 
the city, he made a "bee line" for the country, over 
the hills and up the mountains till I commenced to 
wonder how I would ever get back to the hotel, for I 
felt that my vitality would be exhausted before we 
reached our destination. At last we arrived at the 
desired spot and seated ourselves for a little rest. 
After I was well settled in my seat, I hardly knew 
whether I was dead or alive, but was determined not 
to let the Englishman know that he could soon walk 
an American to death. 

I was greatly relieved when he remarked, "By Jove, 
I feel a bit tired don'tcher know. I took a bit of a 
walk yesterday and am not feeling quite fit to-day." 
I was anxious to know what he called a bit of a walk, 
and he replied, "Oh, it was not such a terrible jaunt, 
I think about eighteen miles." 

I give this illustration to show the difference be- 
tween the English and American people relative to 
distance, when it pertains to walking. A little jaunt 
of eighteen miles did not appeal to the Englishman as 
a very arduous task, but the average American would 
much prefer to make his eighteen mile trips in an 
automobile. 



Christian Science 231 

Congenial companionship greatly lessens fatigue in 
walking, it takes a person's mind from themselves, 
and the distance is greatly shortened. The soldier's 
burden is greatly lightened by the music and the com- 
panionship of his fellow comrades; here is where the 
law of suggestion is very forcibly illustrated, his 
attention is diverted from himself and he is not con- 
stantly suggesting to himself, how tired I am. 

If a person is admiring beautiful scenery, or think- 
ing of some story they have been reading, they will 
not think about being fatigued, but if they start out 
saying, I don't think I can stand this walk, and a little 
later begin to say I am tired, and concentrate their 
thoughts upon the fact that walking is fatiguing, they 
might as well stay at home. 

The subject of deep breathing in the open air, while 
you are walking should not be neglected, by filling the 
lungs with pure air and furnishing the blood with 
plenty of oxygen will give new life and prevent 
fatigue. 

Dr. Webster of Bowdoin College says: "As long 
as exercises were popular, as long as they were kept 
up, Greece steadily rose in intellectual and political 
power and influence ; but as soon as the people became 
rich and luxurious, and allowed their exercises to de- 



232 Rational and Comparative 

cline, then intellectual progress stopped and then 
political power began to wane. A few centuries later 
Rome had the same experience." 

If a man expects to be strong and full of vigor at 
"three score and ten," he must lay the foundation 
during the period of youth. Wealth has made many 
boys physical as well as mental degenerates. 

Self-reliance is what develops a boy into real man- 
hood, it develops his will power as well as his muscle. 
A person must be brought in contact with the real 
problems of self -sustenance, in order to develop the 
organs of construction and combativeness which will 
fit him for real manhood. As a rule it is a detri- 
ment to any boy to be born rich, his character 
resembles a hot-house plant, he may thrive and look 
pretty as long as he is nurtured and pampered, and is 
given an open account with the tailor, the haber- 
dasher, and is given money for cigarettes and theaters. 
In this way he may be able to keep in the "smart set" 
without developing the true characteristics that are 
essential in the development of true manhood. 

A great lesson may be learned from what Emerson 
wrote regarding boyhood, the following lines are 
sufficient to impress upon every youth the fact that it 
is not a hinderance or disgrace to be born poor. 



Christian Science 233 

"What is the hoop that holds them staunch ? It is the 
iron band of poverty, of necessity, of austerity, which 
excluding them from the sensual enjoyments which 
make other boys too early old, has directed their 
activity into safe and right channels, and made them, 
despite themselves, reverers of the grand, the beautiful, 
and the good. Ah, short-sighted students of books, of 
nature and of man! Too happy could they know their 
advantages, they pine for freedom from that mild 
parental yoke ; they sigh for fine clothes, for rides, for 
theatre, and premature freedom and dissipation which 
others possess. Woe to them if their wishes were 
crowned! The angels that dwell with them, and are 
weaving laurels of life for their youthful brows, are 
Toil and Want and Truth and Mutual Faith.'' 

Should the reader think that Emerson's assertion 
is too strong, let him investigate the early life of all of 
our great men, and successful business men; when we 
realize that the majority of our most successful men 
in business, or politics came from the country, and 
during their boyhood had always been accustomed to 
the very hardest sort of manual labor we will not 
despise labor or exercise. The business woman should 
also be recognized as an important factor. 



234 Rational and Comparative 

CONGENIAL COMPANIONSHIP. 

Volumes could be written on this topic, in fact 
human destiny hinges on this vital point, true happi- 
ness is as dependent upon companionship, as the most 
beautiful flower is dependent upon the warm rays of 
the sun, for bringing forth its exquisite fragrance, and 
blending its colors with a nicety that puzzles the 
greatest artist to imitate. 

The desire for companionship is not by any means 
limited to the human family, the entire animal king- 
dom is endowed with the same strong desire, and the 
most ferocious beast will fight for his companion till 
life is extinct. In accordance with the laws of nature 
or we might say the laws of the Creator, it is very 
natural that the strongest ties of friendship exist be- 
tween opposite sexes, and where there is a harmonious 
uniting, the acme of true happiness has been reached, 
and the great realization of connubial bliss has been 
accomplished. Neither riches, political eminence, pro- 
fessional fame or any conceivable aggrandizement can 
fill the place of a congenial, loving, life companion; 
their departure leaves a void which cannot be filled. 

Granting this assertion to be true, would it not be 
natural for us to inquire the reason of so many people 



Christian Science 235 

being "mismated," as an uncongenial marriage is 
often spoken of. It is safe to say that at least half of 
the people who are being divorced might avoid the 
greater per cent of their discord by the proper educa- 
tion ; many people have never been properly introduced 
to themselves, they have dormant faculties which have 
not been properly developed, while some other quali- 
ties of their nature are overdeveloped. 

A person should not only study himself, but make 
a careful study of his companion and ascertain where 
the real trouble lies. A careful investigation would 
doubtless reveal the fact that both, the man and 
woman, were endowed with faculties capable of pro- 
ducing harmony, contentment, and a most happy 
union. On the other hand without doubt, each would 
possess a sufficient amount of selfishness if unre- 
strained to produce a plenty of discord for the entire 
neighborhood. It requires great dexterity in the aver- 
age individual to always be able to maintain anything 
like a perfect equanimity. This failure of possessing 
a well poised temperament, is the chief cause of a large 
per cent of friction and unintentional provocation, 
which may cause a resentment not easily forgotten or 
forgiven. 

A great General once said : "If I could only govern 



236 Rational and Comparative 

myself as easily as I can govern an army I would be 
happy." This shows that position is no guarantee to 
true happiness, for true contentment comes from 
within. We very often hear of wealthy people com- 
mitting suicide, while thousands of poor people living 
in contentment in a humble cottage cling to life with 
the greatest tenacity. It is the congenial companion- 
ship that makes life worth the living, whether it be in 
a cottage or a mansion. 

The best illustration of life I have ever witnessed 
was in crossing the ocean at different times. I once 
crossed in a large transport steamer, that carried 
freight and passengers, the accommodations were com- 
fortable but not elegant, the weather was perfect, the 
boat glided along over the placid sea without a jar; 
every one on board appeared happy and contented, dur- 
ing the day they spent their time in walking on the 
promenade deck, and playing games, and chatting; in 
the evening they would listen to the deck hands singing 
their funny songs and watch them dance jigs. To add 
enjoyment to the occasion the silvery moon shone 
bright and the speed of the boat was sufficient to pro- 
duce a salubrious air ; everything was so plain, and yet 
sublime, perfect harmony reigned supreme, and good 
companionship abounded. 



Christian Science 237 

At another time I crossed on one of the finest boats 
that ever left New York harbor, no expense had been 
curtailed to make this boat a veritable "floating palace," 
with sumptuous furnishings at every turn. Several 
New York millionaires were on board, but it was very 
noticeable that they had left their good companionship 
at home if they ever possessed anything of the kind. 
One young man who came from one of the most prom- 
inent families in New York city, scarcely ever spoke 
to his wife, and when he did he looked as sour as if he 
had soaked over night in lemon juice; it was quite 
evident that companionship was lacking, as I read in 
the papers about one year later that this couple had 
been divorced. Many others who had been accustomed 
to every luxury utterly failed to appreciate the beauties 
of their surroundings, and it would not take a very apt 
scholar in physiognomy to discern a lack of true con- 
tentment, and companionable feeling. 

The second night out, the boat struck a thick fog, 
and that terrible sound which brings terror to the ears 
of the tourist was in evidence, and you would hear on 
every hand remarks from passengers concerning the 
terrible dismal sound from the much dreaded fog horn. 
I can conceive of nothing more dreary even if it were 
not an omen of danger. The fourth day dubious 



238 Rational and Comparative 

clouds appeared in the sky, the wind began to blow, 
and constantly grew stronger till it developed into a 
real gale, it was impossible to walk on deck without 
holding to the ropes, the clouds grew blacker and 
blacker, till it looked as if we were going into the in- 
fernal regions, and to add to what was already equal 
to the "chamber of horrors," the waves constantly 
increased in volume, causing the boat to plunge into 
them with the fierceness of a mad bull when a red flag 
is darted into his face. 

Every one who has been on the ocean in a bad storm 
knows that this description is not overdrawn and the 
two voyages which I have attempted to picture, have 
many times come vividly into my mind when I have 
stopped to contemplate the conditions in people's lives. 

In the first illustration, we had peace, harmony and 
happiness without luxury, while in the second illustra- 
tion we had luxury without harmony or contentment. 
In giving these illustrations I do not wish to convey the 
idea that contentment cannot exist, nor that harmony 
does not prevail among the wealthy classes, at the same 
time, I do most emphatically declare that true happiness 
is not by any means dependent upon wealth. "A con- 
tented mind is a continual feast ;" this is true regardless 
of surroundings, whether it be in a country cottage or 



Christian Science 239 

a city mansion, and it cannot exist in either place with- 
out harmony and congenial companionship. 

"The sense of the world is short, 
Long and various the report, — 

To love and to be loved ; 
Men and gods have not outlearned it, 
And how oft soe'er they've turned it. 
'Ti* not to be improved." 

— Emerson. 



AMUSEMENTS. 

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." This 
is a true saying and every person who has any percep- 
tive faculties can see a most vivid illustration exhibited 
in the small child, it is nature's great demand in 
humanity. One of the greatest questions of the age is, 
what constitutes innocent amusements for the young 
and old ? The question is being discussed in the home, 
the clubs, the numerous societies, and quite likely some 
of you have heard it discussed from the pulpit. 

There is such a multiplicity of games and different 
varieties of amusements, good, bad, and indifferent, 
that it is an utter impossibility to lay down any exact 



240 Rational and Comparative 

rules, a person must be governed to a very large degree 
by their own good common sense and unbiased con- 
science. Cards have been very much discussed, and in 
many instances justly condemned, by people who have 
seen their friends transformed into absolute "card 
fiends." You can find plenty of society ladies who 
judge a person's mental caliber by their knowledge of 
cards; it would not matter if the person was a student 
in Shakespeare, Emerson, Browning, Milton and Ten- 
nyson, if they should make the unpardonable blunder 
of "leading low in the third hand round" they would 
be looked upon as a stupid dunce who should not try to 
force herself into society. 

With nearly all amusements and different sorts of 
pleasure, the trouble does not lie so much in the use, as 
the abuse of the thing itself. There are in Chicago card 
clubs that meet promptly at nine o'clock every Monday 
morning, this is what I call genuine ambition. Gam- 
bling, either for money or for a prize is the great curse 
of card playing, people become so intensely anxious to 
win a prize that they absolutely lose control of their 
temper and often insult their partner for not playing 
"According to Hoyle." A card fiend is just as much 
to be dreaded as a whisky or opium fiend. To prove 
this statement I will give the experience of a gentleman 



Christian Science 241 

who was invited one evening to the home of a business 
man who was a genuine card fiend. 

After the game had progressed for about two hours, 
the host was playing with his wife (a beautiful bride 
of only four months) ; she made a bad play, which lost 
him the game. In his fit of anger he remarked, "That 
is a fine way to play cards," and rose to his feet and 
slapped her in the face, and she left the room, and the 
guests departed for home. The outcome resulted in 
separation and divorce. 

Probably there is no game in which well bred people 
are so apt to lose their manners, as in the game of 
cards, even if they constrain their feelings sufficiently 
to keep their mouth closed, they will give vent to their 
feelings with a sneering look signifying that their 
partner better go home and study Hoyle. 

The object of any amusement should be for the pur- 
pose of relaxation, and diverting the mind from care 
and mental strain. Diversity is not only a pleasure 
but a necessity for the maintenance of health, but no 
manner of pleasure should be carried to an extent that 
transforms man into beast. 

While the theatre is one of the most popular places 
for amusement, and is at the present day patronized by 
nearly all classes, a person may abuse this mode of 



242 Rational and Comparative 

recreation, and spend money for theatres that should 
go to pay honest debts. 

To be able to maintain and preserve an equanimity 
in all sports, as well as in our daily routine of labor, is 
of inestimable importance, then add to this, temperance 
in all things, — work or play — and then be governed by 
the dictates of a conscientious mind, it will not be very 
necessary to map out a line of amusements that can be 
safely participated in. 

A certain amount of recreation is necessary for the 
maintenance of a well balanced mind, and it prevents a 
person from becoming morbid. At the same time, 
while a person is participating in recreation, their en- 
thusiasm should not dwarf their self-respect and 
courtesy. Try to make the best of all things at all 
times; a great lesson may be learned from this little 
poem: 

"This little slip of light, 
'Twixt night and wight, 
Let me keep bright 
Today ! 

And let no fumes of yesterday 
Nor shadows of tomorrow 
Bedim with sorrow 
Today! 



Christian Science 243 

I take this gift of heaven 
As simply as 'tis given ; 
And if tomorrow shall be sad, 
Or never come at all, I've had at least 
Today !" 

DUAL SLEEPING 

The soul and body loves sweet repose 
And absolute rest from tight fitting clothes. 

Sleep is one of the greatest blessings given to human- 
ity, and in fact to the entire animal kingdom; it is an 
absolute necessity, and it demands more intelligent 
thought than most people imagine. The slang phrase, 
"He don't know enough to go to bed," might apply to 
many people as far as the physiological part is con- 
cerned. 

First — Every person who is capable of self protection 
should sleep alone, in a well ventilated room. 

The London Lancet says : "Nothing will so derange 
the nervous system of a person who is eliminative 
in nervous force as to lie all night in bed with another 
who is absorbent of nervous force." If people cannot 
have a room alone they can easily have two single beds 
in a room. 



244 Rational and Comparative 

Second — Don't think you can cheat nature out of 
several hours sleep every night; it will surely tell on 
your health some day. In order to secure a good night's 
rest you must have a comfortable bed; it is poor 
policy to economize in fitting up a bed. 

Some people will purchase a ten dollar mattress and 
a thirty dollar hat. More health and comfort would be 
secured by reversing the deal. 

Sleeping in the open air is being practiced by many 
with very beneficial results ; the window tent is also be- 
ing used quite extensively by progressive health culture 
people. 

Insomnia is the most annoying and wearing-out proc- 
ess of the nervous system that many have to contend 
with ; a hot drink with something hot at the feet and a 
cold cloth on the head often gives great relief. 

Suggestion works like a charm with many people who 
are troubled with insomnia. 

Sitting up in bed and rolling the head in a circle sev- 
eral times often aids very much. Good sound sleep is 
of such vital importance that people should put forth 
a special effort to secure it, for it is one of the greatest 
blessings that nature has given us. 



Christian Science 245 

CONTENTMENT. 

Contentment is one of the essentials of a healthy 
body, as well as to a happy and well balanced mind, 
many persons who are discontented worry themselves 
into physical wrecks. While I do not take any stock 
in the theory that all is mind, and matter does not exist, 
I take the common sense view that the mind is the 
standard of the man. 

This little poem gives a good illustration : 

Were I so tall to reach the pole, 
And meet the ocean with my span ; 

I would be measured by my soul, 
The mind is the standard of the man. 

This does not insinuate that the mind is the whole 
man, and that his body of flesh and blood is all a myth, 
neither does it infer that the pole is a myth. Some 
people think the pole is a myth because neither of the 
discoverers brought it back with them. 

There is about as much logic in one theory as in the 
other. There must be a harmonious and healthy con- 
dition of both mind and body, and each must be in a 
normal condition in order to establish and maintain 
contentment. Certain people may claim that they do 



246 Rational and Comparative 

not believe in a physical body, at the same time they 
spend just as much for food and clothing as they did 
before receiving this wonderful revelation that "All is 
mind." 

I think if the entire human race could be positively 
guaranteed an annuity, sufficient to feed and clothe 
what we call the physical body, there would be many 
anxious and discontented minds transformed into 
harmonious bliss. 

This physical body (the existence of which is so 
absolutely denied) is what keeps the great majority of 
humanity in a state of anxiety, worry, and discontent. 
It matters not whether the wants are absolute, or 
imaginary, in either case inability to satisfy, breeds dis- 
content. Much has been said and written regarding 
the strides of progress during the past fifty years ; dis- 
content has kept in pace with every enterprise. The 
prime cause for the present condition of unrest in the 
human soul, is an ambition to gratify imaginary wants. 
People lack independence, they are followers, not lead- 
ers, they have drifted into a current of extravagance 
that is making them slaves to fads and fashion, the 
result in thousands of cases is bankruptcy, in body, 
mind and purse, and discontentment must be the final 
result as well as the primary cause. 



Christian Science 247 

It is estimated that half of the people who have auto- 
mobiles really have no use for them, and in many cases 
mortgage their homes to secure an automobile because 
their neighbors had one, these people claim they cannot 
afford to have children on account of expense. The 
same desire to keep up an appearance and do what 
others do is manifested in dress. 

When Mr. Martin succeeds in educating people to the 
fact that brains not dress, should be the ruling power, 
contentment will reign supreme, and Air. Martin will be 
a greater man than Washington. 

In the meantime while we are waiting for this mil- 
lenium, let us learn to be independent and contented 
with our lot, for it will produce a better physical and 
mental state. 



RATIONAL CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

HUMANITY HUNGERS FOR IT. 

We have approached an era in which all intelligent 
people recognize the wonderful power of harmonious, 
sympathetic, and concentrated thought. This wonder- 
ful force properly utilized, would in thousands of cases 
turn sorrow into sunshine, despondency into hope, in- 
fidelity into faith, and illness into health. 

An organization to be lasting and beneficial to all 
adherents, at all times, must be founded upon Sound, 
Sensible, and Scientific principles, appealing to people's 
reason in place of working on their passion, precipi- 
tating reason, into blind faith and dogma. 

The great mass of humanity thirst after sympathy, 
and good fellowship, and a feeling of confidence and 
brotherly love. In order to satisfy this desire many 
people will sacrifice reason and judgment, and what 
would appear to us, their good commonsense. 

This is clearly demonstrated in the organization 
known as "Christian Science." My investigation has 
lead to the conclusion that the great majority of its 

248 



Christian Science 249 

members are secured through the power of sympathy 
rather than the claims of Divine healing. 

Credulous people are apt to be sympathetic, and 
while they may lack judgment and reason, they are 
as a rule, honest in their convictions, and they have a 
faculty of influencing other credulous people to join 
their cult. The inducements appeal to people who 
have experienced that lack of genuine hospitality in 
other organizations. 

Aside from this harmonious bond of sympathy, no 
one can doubt that the mind has a marked influence 
upon the body in preserving health and curing certain 
ailments in many individuals, so much so that rational- 
ism is cast aside and everything goes according to 
the bidding of the leader, regardless of science, sense, 
or sarcasm. 

GOOD CHEER. 

Good cheer is another very important factor in 
securing new converts into the so-called "Science." 
The scriptures abound in recommendations of good 
cheer. Prov. 15-13 . "A merry heart maketh a cheer- 
ful countenance." John 16-33 . "These things I have 
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In 
the world ye shall have tribulation: But be of good 



250 Rational and Comparative 

cheer: I have overcome the world." Acts 25-11. 
''The Lord stood by him and said be of good cheer." 
Acts. 27-22. "And now I exhort you to be of good 
cheer." Acts 27-25. "Wherefore, sirs, be of good 
cheer." Matt. 14-27. "But straight way Jesus spake 
unto them, saying: "Be of good cheer: it is I : be 
not afraid." Matt. 9-2. "And, behold, they brought 
to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed; and 
Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the 
palsy: 'Son be of good cheer: thy sins be forgiven 
thee.' " 

No one can deny the efficacy of good cheer, and 
few people 'realize how easy it is to throw a ray of 
sunshine into the heart of a despondent person, by 
simply contracting the mouth just enough to produce 
a smile. This is one of the strong points in Christian 
Science, members are taught the power of a smile 
and ultimately it becomes a habit. 

Many people have such a yearning for sympathy 
and good cheer that they are willing to sacrifice their 
reason, and their senses, in order to mingle with a 
class of people who apparently live for the happiness 
of each other. 

An individual is very much like a corn stalk, — 
unable to stand alone. — A great lesson may be learned 



Christian Science 251 

by watching a farmer shock corn, he picks up a bundle 
in each hand, places them in a position so that one 
bundle will be supported by the other, in other words 
they "lean upon each other.' ' These two bundles can 
maintain their position till the wind begins to blow, 
then over they go, but after the farmer has placed 
forty bundles in one shock the winds may blow and 
blow but the shock stands as firm as a rock. "United 
we stand." Now to proceed with our subject Rational 
Christian Science; the world is full of intelligent peo- 
ple who thoroughly believe in the power of mind over 
body, and would gladly identify themselves with an 
organization composed of thoughtful and rational peo- 
ple. Quite a good many pastors appreciate this fact 
and have already preached sermons advocating the 
study and practice of suggestive therapeutics, and as 
we have already mentioned, the Episcopal churches are 
doing a splendid work in relieving their members of 
nervous and other ailments. 

What every church needs is a systematic organi- 
zation conducted upon business principles, for the 
purpose of utilizing this great mental force and demon- 
strating what may be accomplished by concentrated 
thought. There is nothing complicated about this 
mental treatment, all that is required is Faith, Earnest- 
ness and Concentration of Mind. 



252 Rational and Comparative 

If a dozen people will form a club and concentrate 
health thoughts upon any friend who is ailing, a few 
sittings will demonstrate wonderful results. The pa- 
tient, of course must know just what time this treat- 
ment is to take place, so as to be in a receptive condition. 
It would be better if the person being treated could 
be present, as the impressional effect produced by cheer- 
ful countenances, and sympathetic words, and assur- 
ance of results, would be a great aid and stimulant 
to the mind and strengthen the faith of the patient. 

MODE OF PROCEDURE IN GIVING TREATMENT. 

The patient should be seated in an easy chair, and 
the muscles should be relaxed, and thoughts of health 
firmly implanted upon the mind. 

One of the group should be the spokesman and say 
in firm tone and low voice : "You will be well" — and 
all present should repeat the same to themselves. 
After repeating these words slowly for a few minutes 
take a short rest, then give a silent treatment by hav- 
ing everyone close their eyes and repeat the follow- 
ing words : "Bring us health." After the silent treat- 
ment the leader should repeat in the same voice as 
before : "Our friend is better" — all repeating the same 



Christian Science 253 

to themselves. After these treatments are over the 
leader should take the patient by the hand, look into 
his eyes and firmly and pleasantly say: "I can see 
you are looking better, then all of the others should 
take the patient by the hand and express themselves 
in a similar manner but not using the same words. 

Wonderful results may be reached in the very first 
treatment, but if great results are not obtained at first 
do not be discouraged. Do not in any treatments 
assume that the patient is an idiot by saying: "You 
have no pain." "You have no brain." "You have 
no nerves." "There is no illness," &c, &c. 

Jesus never denied sickness. He always stimulated 
people in the belief that their faith would make them 
whole. He never claimed that man was void of sensa- 
tion. He never denied the existence of matter. His 
teaching and healing was based on scientific principles 
and He never attempted to demoralize the mind in 
order to produce results. 

Every pastor could accomplish great results by form- 
ing an organization among the members of his church 
and devote one hour a week to the physical wants 
of members, whose condition require the mental and 
spiritual aid of friends to lift them up and place them 
upon a firmer basis. 



254 Rational and Comparative 

Jesus devoted as much time to improving the phys- 
ical condition of man as he did to saving the soul, 
"And when he called unto him his twelve disciples, he 
gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them 
out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner 
of disease.' , 

HOW CAN WE FIND THE TIME? 

Doubtless many people will think that they can- 
not find the time for this special and vital important 
work of restoring a brother or sister to health. 

Let me make a suggestion. Every regular church 
has one evening a week for prayer meeting. Now 
for a beginning take thirty minutes of the regular time 
for Mental and Spiritual Healing, conducting the 
treatment as already stated, after a few meetings the 
work will be greatly strengthened by testimonials from 
those who have been benefited. 

We often hear pastors say to their congregation, 
that there is not the proper interest in the weekly 
prayer meeting. I will assure every pastor that there 
will be no lack of interest after this work is estab- 
lished. Think of the satisfaction of knowing that you 
had helped to rescue some poor discouraged brother 
or sister. 



Christian Science 255 

Do you know of any better means of keeping mem- 
bers from leaving their own church and joining cults 
where they can get this treatment? 

I have in my possession several books written by 
pastors denouncing Christian Science, showing how 
it was undermining the standard Christian churches, 
denouncing Mrs. Eddy as an impostor, claiming to 
teach what Christ taught, and claiming a Divine revela- 
tion, which was untrue. Now I have no defense to 
offer in favor of Mrs. Eddy, as I presume there never 
was a person who attempted to teach the scriptures, 
but what was a better living example of Christ's 
teachings than Mrs. Eddy. But of all the books I 
have read exposing Christian Science and branding 
the founder as a gigantic fraud, not one has even 
suggested a remedy or an improvement. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the so-called Chris- 
tian Science is absolutely void of either Christianity 
or Science, we cannot deny results, and results are 
what many people must have. 

Now if a person absolutely void of Spirituality and 
sincerity, can demonstrate the power of Spiritual heal- 
ing, why cannot honest spiritual and faithful people, 
produce even better results? 

I will ask every candid man and woman, if this 



256 Rational and Comparative 

method of mutual aid in helping members who feel 
the need of your good will and sympathy, is not the 
proper way of demonstrating the teaching of the 
Scriptures, and of retaining members who feel the 
need of such aid. 

WHAT MIGHT PROVE A GREATER MENACE 
TO THE CHURCH. 

There are thousands of people who see the good in 
the present Christian Science Church, but will not 
associate themselves with an organization based upon 
principles antagonistic to Christianity and Common- 
sense. Another very important reason why thousands 
of people have been kept out of the Christian Science 
Church, is, they shrank from being looked upon as 
abnormal, "easy marks," or hypnotic subjects. They 
attend the church a few times till they are satisfied 
that the teachings are not in harmony with reason, 
then they drop out. 

Now if the regular Christian Churches make no 
effort to teach and demonstrate Rational Christian 
Science — which is to protect both soul and body — there 
is danger of an independent organization springing 
up, based upon true and rational principles, that would 
appeal to a higher class of intelligence, and draw manv 
good people from their present associations. 



Christian Science 257 

THE HEART OR AFFECTION. 

We will ask the reader to turn back to page 101 in 
this book and read what Mr. Adams wrote concern- 
ing the importance of aiding those who are in need of 
your sympathy and friendship. 

Thousands of wealthy people are in what is called 
"Needy Circumstances/' while they have every phys- 
ical want gratified, the soul is starving for the want 
of what money alone cannot produce. When we speak 
of people being in needy circumstances, it is under- 
stood by the remark that financial aid is all that is 
required to bring contentment and relief, and in the 
majority of cases alluded to in this way, financial aid 
brings relief, as it is much less difficult to satisfy a 
starving stomach than a starving brain. 

The laws of nature demand nutrition for every 
organ of the physical body, this nutrition is an abso- 
lute necessity, as there is a constant waste taking place 
in the body, and the entire physical organization would 
be consumed if not provided with nutrition to supply 
the demand. 

The mind or soul has been fed from infancy, on 
affection, love, companionship, faith, and hope, now 
if you deprive the spiritual man of these necessities 



258 Rational and Comparative 

which are the food for the soul, does it not leave him 
in "needy circumstances' , just as much as depriving 
the physical man of bread and meat? 

In order to have a perfect man or woman, both the 
spiritual and physical needs must be well supplied, 
as each is absolutely dependent upon the other. It is 
an easy matter to turn a peaceful mind into an ab- 
normal condition by abusing the stomach. Let a man 
go to a club dinner and eat — at midnight — twice as 
much as the stomach can easily digest, and "just to 
be social," drink a quart of champagne, and smoke 
several strong cigars, go home and get four hours of 
sleep when the system requires eight hours, and dur- 
ing a large part of the four hours he would be dream- 
ing that the house was on fire, or that he was riding 
on a rickety train, going down a grade at seventy 
miles an hour with the engineer dead, or that he could 
see a black hand placing a bomb under his porch and 
unable to call for help. 

Do you think this man would be in a pleasant frame 
of mind the next morning? If you had contemplated 
selling him stock in an air ship would you select the 
morning following this eventful night? 

Will any person of reason argue that the stomach 
or what is put into it, cannot effect the mind? On 



Christian Science 259 

the other hand the physical body is just as much, and 
in reality more keenly affected by the mind. People 
often faint at even the sigtit of a telegram. Sorrow, 
disaster or great disappointment, often prostrates a 
person for a long period. It is folly to argue that 
the mind and body are not dependent on each other 
for the maintenance of a normal condition. It is also 
true that mental conditions are to a certain extent 
effected by the condition of others. It is an old and 
true saying that "Misery loves company." 

I saw this illustrated in San Francisco during the 
period of the earthquake and fire. People would 
retreat up the hills and look back and watch the wild 
and furious flames follow on leaping from building 
to building, they would see their own home which they 
had loved for years enveloped in flames, and in many 
cases without a murmur. I spent part of the night 
on the porch of an old gentleman's house; he sat and 
watched the terrible clouds of smoke and flame ap- 
proaching without showing any degree of agitation, 
at last he said, "I built this house thirty years ago 
and have never moved, but I think I will be obliged to 
move now." This resigned feeling was due to a large 
extent to the fact that all were sharing the same fate, 
and there appeared to be a bond of universal sympathy 



260 Rational and Comparative 

that gave each one strength to endure his financial 
loss and mental affliction. 

Sympathy has a most wonderful influence upon all 
conditions of humanity, the rich are poor without it, 
the poor are rich if they possess it, for contentment 
cannot exist, where discord has crowded out sym- 
pathy, and as "Contentment is a continual feast," it 
is well to avoid breeding discontent. 

In this connection I wish to impress upon the reader 
that contentment or health is not dependent upon cli- 
mate, location, or nationality. I have aimed to refrain 
from alluding too much to my own personal experi- 
ence, but to illustrate just what I desire to prove 
I will be obliged to deviate a little from my intentions. 
1 have conversed with people living in the largest and 
finest cities of America and Europe who were dis- 
satisfied, and had an idea that they would be much 
happier either in the country or in some other city; 
while on the other hand I have found people who 
were just clinging to the "jumping off place," living 
in perfect contentment. Years ago I made a trip 
to Eustice, Maine, which at that time was the last 
town before entering into a wilderness. I conversed 
with quite a number of inhabitants and it is an abso- 
lute fact that those people expressed a greater degree 



Christian Science 261 

of satisfaction and contentment than thousands of 
people who have traveled from one end of the con- 
tinent to the other looking for a land of perfection. 

I have heard many people say that they would be 
satisfied if they could only get to the Pacific Coast, 
and I have heard many people who were living on the 
Pacific Coast say they would be delighted to get back 
East, so there you have it. You can find satisfaction 
and dissatisfaction wherever you go. The human 
mind is very much like a barometer, easily influenced 
by the surrounding atmosphere. 

Whole districts often become enthused over the 
report of some friend who is absolutely certain that 
he has found a paradise on earth, many will sell out 
at most any price and start for the newly discovered 
"Garden of Eden/' and very likely they will return 
within a year with less money, but greater experience. 

The same is true concerning health, people who 
are ailing get the idea that they would be all right 
in some other climate, while a change of climate often 
proves beneficial it is in most cases the rest and change 
of surroundings, so it does not matter very much 
which direction they go, the mind becomes diverted 
from business cares and the entire mental and phys- 
ical conditions recuperate, providing the mind can be 



262 Rational and Comparative 

set free from business cares, and from ailments of 
the body. 

My investigations pertaining to different climates 
lead me to the conclusion that people can be either 
sick or well in most any climate, at the same time 
some climates demand more attention than others. In 
some of the southern states the system becomes im- 
pregnated with malaria, these conditions require some- 
thing more than mental treatment. Over eating must 
be avoided, pure water must be drank freely, the bowels 
must be regular and the skin must be kept in a healthy 
condition. 

A person must perspire freely and eliminate the 
malaria from the system. If the rules already advo- 
cated in this book are adhered to a person can have 
good health in most any place or any climate. Of 
course every one knows that cold climates are the 
most invigorating. 

PERSONAL WILL POWER. 

Notwithstanding the importance of observing the 
rules of health that are herein suggested, and the 
wonderful aid that may come from sympathetic 
friends in the way of suggestion and united suppli- 
cation, a determined will power must be exercised 



Christian Science 263 

in order to combat abnormal conditions. While many 
writers go beyond all reason in arguing th'at you 
can have anything you desire by exerting sufficient 
will power, absolute success in any direction cannot 
be achieved without strong personal determination. 
Great obstacles may be overcome by sufficient will 
power, and in case the desired results are not obtained 
it is of still more importance to be able to make light 
of disappointments. 

Strong will power may be a great detriment to a 
person when it is not guided by reason. A drunken 
man may have strong will power, so may an insane 
person, but in such people it is a dangerous power, 
because they are deprived of reason and they are very 
liable to do great harm if not restricted. Here is 
where lies the great danger in developing a will to 
recognize nothing but perfect health. Affirming that 
fever, smallpox, diphtheria and many other diseases 
do not exist, shows an abnormal mental condition just 
as much as drunkenness or insanity. Many people are 
sane on general topics but when the mind is side- 
tracked, and gets out of the regular routine of rational 
thought, reason becomes dethroned until they are 
switched back onto the main track. I have talked 



264 Rational and Comparative 

with people for a long time before discovering their 
insanity. 

Will power like steam power, is made capable of 
producing great results through proper control. Per- 
sonal will power if not guided by reason may produce 
disastrous results. 

For mental or physical ailments, the great object 
to be accomplished, is to divert the mind into other 
channels, and have it occupied with thoughts far re- 
moved from what is producing the trouble. Here is 
where your personal will power must be brought to 
bear. 

In case of the loss of a friend an absolute change 
of scenery is advisable and a constant intercourse with 
people, and with the world, that will prevent the mind 
from being concentrated on the affliction you are try- 
ing to overcome. Strong personal will power is much 
needed to overcome sorrow, and if properly used it 
proves a great blessing. 

In this connection I wish to speak of a duty we 
owe to the public, as well as to ourselves and to our 
departed friends. This refers to the use and abuse of 
mourning, which is as much of a desire to keep up 
with fashion and custom as it is to honor the departed 
friend. 



Christian Science 26$ 

In European cities this custom is carried to pain- 
ful extremes. At times you may find yourself sur- 
rounded by people draped in black crape. Such sur- 
roundings have a very depressing effect, and in many 
cases the outfit is simply to gratify some person who 
wishes to keep in harmony with custom. These people 
little realize how much they are encroaching upon the 
freedom and rights of others, and how depressing their 
presence is to sensitive and sympathetic people. And 
what good can possibly result? It simply reminds 
people of dear ones they have lost, and it irritates 
the wound they are trying to heal, and it accomplishes 
nothing but to gratify "good form." 

Many people who appear in public in this somber 
disguise are far from being in a depressed state of 
mind, very often they are exceedingly vivacious, which 
turns the time-honored custom into a travesty. 

In olden times professional mourners were employed 
to mourn and groan at funerals. It was the custom 
for people to ventilate their feelings as much as pos- 
sible to the public views. Such demonstrations are 
not in keeping with modest taste and while some of 
the most objectionable features have been eliminated 
there is still room for reform. 

Sunshine is more conducive to health than dark 



266 Rational and Comparative 

clouds, and it is well to remember that we owe a duty 
to the living as well as to the dead, and we should 
bear in mind the fact that our friends and the world 
at large can make good use of all the good cheer that 
we are able to bestow. 

Just imagine your eyes are a field glass and when 
you are thinking of the many blessings that have been 
bestowed upon you, hold the glass so it will magnify, 
but when you think everything goes the wrong way 
shift ends with the field glass and throw your dis- 
appointments as far off as possible. 

Satisfaction is largely a condition of the mind, it 
is a very rare occurrence to find a person who is per- 
fectly satisfied with the amount of money accumulated, 
in fact a marked degree of prosperity often transforms 
a benevolent nature into a miser and many millionaires 
develop into "human hogs." They will clog the great 
wheels of progress, and be the means of depriving 
deserving humanity of the necessities of life, to satisfy 
their selfish greed. History repeats itself, power, op- 
pression, revenge, and satisfaction appears to be an 
ever existing and everlasting condition of humanity. 

Mighty empires rise and fall, the struggle goes on 
between the oppressors and oppressed. Experience 
and historical facts fail to impress civilization with 



Christian Science 267 

the fact that the great brotherhood of humanity should 
be recognized. While we do not quite believe that 
all men are born equal, we do believe that the world 
owes to every human being a certain degree of hu- 
manitarian feeling and fellowship. 

History demonstrates that oppression is bound to 
have a reaction sooner or later, and when the reaction 
comes and the oppressed get control, they display a 
greater degree of cruelty than had ever been practiced 
by their oppressors. All countries have been cursed 
by financial insanity, men who developed a greed for 
wealth, that could no more be satisfied than a drunk- 
ard's thirst for liquor, and the former is a thousand 
times more dangerous to the safety of a nation than 
the latter. 

Millionaires who will corrupt legislation and kill 
measures intended to relieve and benefit the people, are 
a menace to the public welfare, and if not checked 
they will surely pave the way for national disaster. 

Such people need mental treatment just as much as 
a lunatic, because they know not what they want, for 
they already have many times as much as they could 
ever use, and still they would defeat laws intended 
to bring peace and plenty to the multitude. Can you 
conceive how a man of sane mind could fall so low in 



268 Rational and Comparative 

the scale of human sympathy, as to bar the necessities 
of life from hungry people? 

The question arises, how can we reform these peo- 
ple who are undermining the nation's democracy. It 
is possible that the concentration of thought might be 
utilized to reform men who are a menace to good 
government. The following report from a reliable 
physician shows the power of concentration, and some 
very eminent men claim that it is not absolutely neces- 
sary to have the patient present. If financial insanity 
could be reached in this manner it would be a Godsend 
to humanity. 

INTERESTING CASES. 

Reported by Dr. S. T. Yount, Reliance Building, 
Chicago, late professor of Nervous and Mental Dis- 
eases, Chicago Post Graduate Medical School of 
Chicago. 

Many years ago, Dr. Yount had two most inter- 
esting cases treating each for a number of years, for 
paraplegia, (paralysis from hips down.) Both pa- 
tients were young women of the same age, physique 
and religion, with excellent family histories. Both 
had been paralyzed for eight years before the doctor 
took charge of their cases. 



Christian Science 269 

Miss A. B. had been examined by the late Dr. 
Roberts Bartholow of Cincinnati and later of Phila- 
delphia, (Professor, Principles & Practice of Medicine 
in Jefferson Medical College) and her case pronounced 
absolutely incurable. 

Miss M. S. had been examined by the eminent spe- 
cialist, Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia and had 
been pronounced incurable. Both cases had the same 
symptoms, being completely paralyzed from the hips 
down to the toes. Paralyzed parts insensitive to hot 
irons or needles run into the flesh. Miss A. B. had 
convulsive seizures, lasting for ten days, during which, 
she could neither swallow fluids or nourishment. Dur- 
ing the last year prior to her recovery, she had attacks 
of total blindness, lasting two or three weeks. Miss 
M. S. had none of these alarming symptoms, being 
always bright, cheerful and happy, while Miss A. B. 
was low spirited and gloomy. After Miss A. B. had 
been under the doctor's care for six years, she decided 
to take a nine days' Novena, (nine days of prayer 
wherein the priest and whole congregation joined in 
daily prayers for her recovery.) At the end of the 
nine days' novena, the young woman was carried to 
the church where she was placed in a kneeling posi- 
tion, before the altar, supported by her mother. The 



270 Rational and Comparative 

Reverend Father annointed her, and the whole con- 
gregation prayed aloud for her restoration. Then the 
priest in loud commanding voice, bid her to arise and 
walk. This she did, and her recovery was perfect and 
lasting. 

When Miss M. S. heard of her friend's wonderful 
recovery, by prayer, she decided to try a Novena, — 
but failure was her reward. She tried a second and 
third time, with the same results. A few months later, 
she was taken to the Fountain of Lourdes, accompanied 
by her father, sister and priest. The result of all the 
attempts was a signal failure, and she returned to her 
home to die a few weeks later. 

The lesson one learns from these two parallel cases, 
is : Miss A. B. was a sufferer from Hystero-Psychical 
paralysis, which was curable, and Miss M. S. suffered 
from an organic disease of the spinal cord which was 
absolutely incurable. - 

This without doubt was one of the most marvelous 
cures ever witnessed in America. The question is sub- 
ject to discussion concerning what produced the won- 
derful transformation, whether it was the mental con- 
centration of the people, or perfect faith in the patient, 
or a case of Divine healing. 

Regardless of the different ideas people may ad- 



Christian Science 271 

vance this was a most wonderful cure and will with- 
out doubt interest people who are investigating the 
power of mental treatment. 

When people have the assurance of such marvelous 
results it should certainly stimulate a confidence in 
testing mental treatment for minor ailments. Mental 
depression responds to mental treatment more readily 
than to any other treatemnt and many times a severe 
pain will disappear almost instantly by suggestion. 

There is no question but what great results may 
be accomplished by Rational Mental Treatment, and 
it is earnestly hoped that church organizations will 
establish a means of aiding those suffering from mental 
or physical ailments. 

Results I have obtained in demonstrating this un- 
questionable power, in the betterment of abnormal con- 
ditions, stimulates me to urge the work to be carried 
on in a sane and progressive manner. 



Our Best Men and Best Minds 
Are Becoming Interested In This 
Great Work of Suggestion. 
There Is No End to the Amount of 
Good That May be Accomplished. 

From the President ofBowdoin College 

"To one who has discovered the secret of this power, 
a week permitted to pass by without changing the life 
currents of half a dozen of his fellows would seem a 
wicked, wanton waste of life's chief privilege and joy. 
I could name a quiet, modest man, who at a low esti- 
mate, has changed radically for the better a thousand 
human lives; and indirectly, to an appreciable degree, 
certainly not fewer than a hundred thousand. The 
greater part of this vast work has been done in a 
quiet conversation, mainly in his own home and by 
correspondence. 

Such power of one man over another is in no way 
inconsistent with the freedom and responsibility of 
them both." 

Wm. DeWitt Hyde, D. D., 

President of Bowdoin College 

Many of the leading educational institutions are 
giving attention to this practical part of psychology. 
Every pastor has in his church from one to ten people 
who possess the natural requiremets for leadership in 
this line of mental therapeutics. Such people should 
be trained for the work in a practical, scientific manner, 
recognizing the fact that the spiritual and physical man 
is, or should be, a harmonious combination, each depen- 
dent upon the other for the best possible achievement. 



Special Notice 

WE will gladly aid any person who 
desires to take up this work of 
Mental Therapeutics, and will give them 
a list of books best suited for the study 
of Physical and Mental Development. 



Address 

Rational Health Methods 

Room 703, 59 Van Buren Street 
Chicago 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 

tut 10 »»•» 



